After the Bible and the U.S. Constitution, the Hippocratic Oath is perhaps the historical text most commonly referenced by the largest number of people who lack a sufficient understanding of its history to do so with any meaningful level of accuracy or appropriateness. This is not surprising, as much like the other two just mentioned documents, the Hippocratic writings in which the Oath is to be found have likely actually been read in their entirety by only a very small portion of those one might find making reference to them.
Fortunately, for those who seek to live a life in which the continuous pursuit of knowledge and understanding acts as a guiding force, a new edition of Volume 1 of the Loeb Classical Library’s complete collection of the Hippocratic writings will be published in July 2022.
Translated from the Greek by Prof. Paul Potter, and presented in facing page Greek and English text with extensive introductory sections and copious notes, this new edition replaces the nearly one hundred year old previous edition by W.H.S. Jones.
As this volume of the Loeb Hippocrates includes such significant writings as “Ancient Medicine,” “Airs, Waters, Places,” “Epidemics” 1 and 3., “Precepts,” “Nutriment,” and of course, the oft-mentioned “Oath,” it is the one that should most certainly be read by all who are interested in the subjects of the history of medicine and the history of natural philosophy. Of course, reading the other ten volumes is also – as always in such matters – very much encouraged as well.
