Overthe last 20 years,many scholarshavediscussed the complex value of this exceptional testimony:the ancient manuscript (a Greek papyrus from Egypt, dated 1st cent. A.D.) of an autograph text? an unfinished draft which allows a close insight into the making of medical writing. A large historical section on ‘ancient’ medicine, which explores the causes of diseases and is based on the Aristotelian tradition, and a passionate debate about some central physiological issues of Hellenistic medicine are the core of this text, which alsooffers quotations of many medical and philosophical authorities. Thanks to a new reading, the text has been emendated in many points and is now available to classicists and historians of medicine and philosophy.