Penn in Hand: Selected Manuscripts

Avicenna, 980-1037.

[al-Amrāḍ al-juzʼīyah] [manuscript].

Qānūn fī al-ṭibb. Selections.

[Spain, between 1100 and 1150]

92 leaves : paper ; 240 x 165 (190 x 120) mm.

Arabic, with a few annotations in Hebrew (f. 50r-50v).

Section from Book III of Avicenna's medical encyclopedia al-Qānūn fī al-ṭibb. The section, titled Head-to-toe diseases, discusses diseases beginning with those of the brain, nerves, eyes, and ears, and ending with sciatica and diseases of the joints and nails. One leaf has 13th-century marginal transliterations into Hebrew of Arabic terms in the text (f. 50r-50v); other marginal notes in Arabic throughout. Worm damage, stains, and tears in margins throughout.

Sold by Sam Fogg Ltd. (London) to Lawrence J. Schoenberg, Dec. 2002.

Gift of Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, 2015.

Medicine - Early works to 1800.

Medicine, Arab.

Medicine, Medieval.

Codices.

Treatises.

Manuscripts, Arabic - 12th century.

Manuscripts, Medieval.

Ms. codex.

Title supplied by cataloger (Sam Fogg).

Foliation: Paper, 92; [1-92], modern foliation in pencil, upper left recto.

Layout: Written in 25 long lines.

Script: Written in a professional maghribi script, with a slightly larger script used for headings; a few marginal transliterations written in 13th-century Spanish sephardi cursive script (Sam Fogg).

Decoration: Headings in ink that now appears purple.

Origin: Written in Spain, in Cordoba or Toledo, in the first half of the 12th century (Sam Fogg).

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 80 (LJS 446).

UPenn LJS 446.

Rare Book & Manuscript Library University of Pennsylvania LJS 446