About

Dr Caroline Petit is a classicist with special interest in ancient medical texts, especially Galen and the Galenic corpus. She was trained in classical philology and French literature in Paris and completed her Doctoral thesis at the same university in 2004. Since 2000 she has taught Classics, ancient history and the history of medicine at the universities of Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), Exeter and Manchester where she held Wellcome Trust research fellowships (2004-2007 and 2007-2010 respectively). Before joining Warwick in October 2012, Dr Caroline Petit also held a honorary fellowship at the Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL and a research fellowship at the Institute of Classical Studies, London.

Dr. Caroline Petit is an associate member of the Centre for the Study of the RenaissanceLink opens in a new window

Research interests

My interests lie in the textual transmission, translation and interpretation of ancient medical texts; in the history of rhetoric; and in the long history of ancient medical texts and the many ways they have been appropriated up to modern times.

In the past I have also been involved as a translator in others' projects such as an anthology of black bile (with Patrick DandreyLink opens in a new window), the works of a 17th c. stand-up comedian, Bruscambille (with Hugh Roberts and Annette TomarkenLink opens in a new window) and the history of Hermogenes’ spurious Progymnasmata (with Mike Edwards).

Distinctions: the book arising from my doctoral thesis (Galien. Oeuvres, tome III. Le médecin: Introduction, Les Belles Lettres, 2009) won me two awards (Prix Lantier de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, 2010; Prix Raymond Weil de l'Association pour l'encouragement des études grecques en France, 2010). My monograph, Galien de Pergame ou la rhétorique de la Providence: médecine, littérature et pouvoir à Rome (2018) was awarded the quinquennal Médaille de Chénier de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres (2019).

In November 2020 I was awarded the Wilhelm Friedrich Bessel Research Prize of the Humboldt Foundation.

Recent projects include a Wellcome Trust University Award (2013-2018), on ‘Medical Prognosis in Late Antiquity’. It will deliver the first critical edition of several spurious texts from the Galenic corpus devoted to various aspects of diagnostic and prognostic.

A smaller project, 'Rethinking Ancient Pharmacology' (BA-Leverhulme 2017-2019) explored the multifaceted treatise On Simple Drugs by Galen.

For more information on my past and present work, see my above-mentioned website and blogLink opens in a new window ; see also my page on AcademiaLink opens in a new window (with many articles and chapters to download).

Teaching and supervision

• Medicine in the Ancient World (module leader)
• Rhetorics (module leader)
• Greek Literary Texts (contributes)
• NEW: Health and the Environment from Antiquity to Renaissance Venice (module leader; WIISP)

I am keen to supervise students in the following areas of ancient history and literature: medicine; sciences and techniques; intellectual history; rhetoric.

I would be happy to sponsor excellent PhD candidates for a Wellcome PhD scholarshipLink opens in a new window (please note the scheme is highly competitive) for a dissertation in Medical Humanities (preferably with a focus on ancient medicine, or its reception, esp. in the Renaissance).

Currently supervised students: Claudio Azzarito (CIS), Dennis Van Dijk (CIS)

Past supervised dissertations:

Manuela Marai (PhD). Passed 2024

Simone Mucci (PhD, Galen's De antidotis). Passed 2023.

Maria Karolidou (MAR, Themistius, passed 2020, Distinction); Matt Smith (MAR, Dreams - passed 2019, Distinction).Andree Bagley (Children in medicine in the Roman world), PhD (passed 2016); Andrew Ballantine (Early philosophy & Hippocratic corpus) MAR (passed 2016).

Selected publications

Books (authored)

• (forthc.) Medicine. Antiquity and its Legacy, Bloomsbury
• (2023) Scelerati. Antiques, sadiques et diaboliques, Paris, Les Belles LettresLink opens in a new window

• (2018) Galien de Pergame ou la rhétorique de la Providence: Médecine, Littérature et Pouvoir à RomeLink opens in a new window, Leiden, Brill Mnemosyne Supplements - BMCR review hereLink opens in a new window

• 2009: Galien: Le médecin (Galien. Oeuvres, tome III), Paris, Les Belles LettresLink opens in a new window

Books (edited):

*(2023) Rhetoric and Medicine. Special Issue of Rhetorica (41.3)Link opens in a new window

*(2021) Revisiting Medical Humanism in Renaissance Europe. Special issue of Arts et SavoirsLink opens in a new window

*(2021) Pseudo-Galenica. The Formation of the Galenic Corpus from Antiquity to the Renaissance, Warburg Colloquia 34, London (with S. C. R. Swain and K.-D. Fischer)Link opens in a new window

*(2020) Galen's Treatise On simple drugs: Interpretation and Transmission, special issue of Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences(with M. Martelli and L. Raggetti)

*(2018) Galen's De indolentia in Context. A Tale of ResilienceLink opens in a new window, Leiden, Brill Studies in Ancient Medicine *OPEN ACCESS* BMCR review hereLink opens in a new window

Articles and chapters:

• 2022 'Excessive Temper(ament), Flawed Character: The Entanglement of the Ethical and the Medical in the History of Rhetoric', Journal for the History of Rhetoric 25-1, 31-55
• 2022 'La réception du traité des Simples de Galien à l'époque de Rabelais', L'Année Rabelaisienne 6, 71-91
• 2021 'Medical Humanism in the Making: Symphorien Champier (1471-1539) and Galen', Arts et savoirs 15
• 2021 'Greek Particles in Galen's Oeuvre: Some Case Studies', Scripta Classica Israelica 40, 95-123
• 2020 'Les manuscrits grecs du traité des Simples de Galien', Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences 70, 76-113
• 2018 'Death, Posterity and the Vulnerable Self: περὶ ἀλυπίας in the context of Galen's later works', in C. Petit (ed.), A Tale of Resilience. Galen's De indolentia in Context
• 2017: 'Rhetorique et medecine: le De elementis ex Hippocratis sententia de Galien', Aitia 7.2. (online journal)Link opens in a new window

• 2017: 'Galen, Pharmacology and the Boundaries of Medicine: A Reassessment', in L. Lehmhaus & M. Martelli eds., Collecting Recipes: Byzantine and Jewish Pharmacology in Dialogue, De Gruyter, 51-79Link opens in a new window

• 2016: 'Alexandrie, carrefour des traditions médicales au 7e s.: Les témoignages de Sophrone de Jérusalem, Alexandre de Tralles, Paul d'Egine, Stéphane d'Alexandrie et Jean d'Alexandrie' in J.-P. Caillet/B. Dumézil/S. Destephen/H. Inglebert (eds.), Des dieux civiques aux saints patrons, Paris, Picard, 2016, 287-307Link opens in a new window

• 2014: What does Pseudo-Galen tell us that Galen does not? Ancient medical schools in the Roman Empire', in P. Adamson/R. Hansberger/J. Wilberding (eds), Philosophical Themes in Galen, BICS supplement 114, 2014, 269-290

• 2014: 'Signes et présages: le discours prédictif et ses enjeux chez Artémidore, Galien et Ptolémée', in C. CHandezon/J. Du Bouchet (eds), Artémidore de Daldis et l'interprétation des rêves, Les Belles Lettres, 2014, 161-190

• 2013: 'La tradition latine du traité des Simples de Galien. Remarques préliminaires', Medicina nei Secoli, N.S. 25-3, 2013, 1063-1090

• 2013: 'Galen's pharmacological concepts and terminology in Simon of Genoa's Clavis Sanationis' in B. Zipser (ed.) Simon of Genoa's Medical Lexicon, 2013, 129-148

• 2013: ‘The fate of a Greek medical handbook in the medieval West: the Introduction, or the Physician ascribed to Galen’ in B. Zipser (ed), Iatrosophia. Byzantine Medical Manuals in Context, Eikasmos onlineLink opens in a new window 2: 57-78

• 2012: ‘René Chartier (1572-1654) et l’authenticité des traités galéniques’Link opens in a new window, in G. Cobolet/V. Boudon-Millot (eds), René Chartier éditeur des oeuvres d’Hippocrate et de Galien. Medic@ series, De Boccard: Paris, 287-300.

• 2012: 'Galien et le 'discours de la méthode': rhétorique (s) médicale (s) à l’époque romaine'Link opens in a new window, in J. Coste/D. Jacquart/J. Pigeaud (eds), La rhétorique médicale à travers les siècles. Hautes études médiévales et modernes, Droz: Paris, 49-75

• 2011: ‘Médecine et hellénisme à la Renaissance: le problème du grec chez Guillaume de Baillou (1538-1616)’Link opens in a new window, Medicina e Storia 11, 2011 (21-22), 113-139

• 2010: 'La tradition manuscrite du traité des Simples de Galien. Editio princeps et traduction annotée des chapitres 1 à 3 du livre I'Link opens in a new window, in V. Boudon-Millot, J. Jouanna, A. Garzya, A. Roselli (eds), Histoire de la tradition et édition des médecins grecs – Storia della tradizione e edizione dei medici greci, D'Auria: Napoli, 143-165

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Qualifications

• M.A. and M.Phil in Classics and French (Paris IV - Sorbonne)

• PhD in Classics (Paris IV- Sorbonne)