Penn in Hand: Selected Manuscripts

Avicenna, 980-1037.

[Sefer ha-Ḳanon] ... [etc.] [manuscript].

Qānūn fī al-ṭibb. Hebrew

[Yemen, ca. 1400-1525]

147 leaves : paper ; 210 x 153 (142 x 100) mm. bound to 220 x 160 mm.

Predominant work in Hebrew (p. 19-234), with shorter works in Judeo-Arabic.

Hebrew translation of Avicenna's medical encyclopedia; its division into 4 books is customary for Hebrew translations, but it also has unusual additional sections on drugs, the liver and intestines, and heart diseases. Short medical works in Judeo-Arabic precede Avicenna's work, and a Judeo-Arabic commentary on Galen follows it; these were written by Saʻīd Danūkh, who also wrote marginal notes alongside the Avicenna.

1. p.1-14: [Brief medical passages or fragments in Judeo-Arabic]

2. p.15-16: [Sayings of Galen in Hebrew and Arabic / glossed by Saʻīd Danookh]

3. p.17-18: [Refuʼat (Prescriptions) in Judeo-Arabic]

4. p.19-234: [Sefer ha-Ḳanon / Avicenna]

5. p.235-294: [Commentary on Galen in Judeo-Arabic]

Formerly owned by Saʻīd Danookh (signed glosses, p. 15-16).

Formerly owned by David Solomon Sassoon (Ms. 428, labels on spine and inside upper cover).

Sold as part of the Sassoon collection at auction at Sotheby's, 21 Jun. 1994, lot 54.

Appeared in Sam Fogg's cat. 16 (1995), no. 83; sold by Sam Fogg Ltd. (London) to Lawrence J. Schoenberg, Apr. 1999.

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

Danūkh, Saʻīd, former owner.

Sassoon, David Solomon, 1880-1942, former owner.

Galen.

Medicine - Early works to 1800.

Medicine, Arab.

Medicine, Medieval.

Codices.

Annotations.

Commentaries.

Encyclopedias.

Treatises.

Manuscripts, Hebrew - 15th century.

Manuscripts, Hebrew - 16th century.

Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Ms. codex.

Title for manuscript supplied by cataloger from title for predominant work.

Collation: Paper, i + 147 + i; 1⁴ 2-5⁸ 6⁶ 7-15⁸ 16⁴ 17-19⁸ 20⁸(-3); [1-294], modern pagination in pencil, usually lower center.

Layout: Predominant work written in 27 long lines (p. 19-234); Judeo-Arabic works written in 29-32 long lines.

Script: Predominant work written in 15th-century Yemeni semi-cursive Hebrew script with rubrics in square script (p. 19-234); Judeo-Arabic works written in a second 15th- or early 16th-century Yemeni semi-cursive Hebrew script in the hand of Saʻīd Danookh, with marginal notes by other hands as well.

Binding: Contemporary (15th-century) or very early morocco, blind-stamped, over pasteboards; remnants of 2 pairs of leather loops (lower cover) and toggles (upper cover).

Origin: Written in Yemen in the 15th century, with additional works and glosses added in the 15th or early 16th century.

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 81-82 (LJS 299).

UPenn LJS 299.

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts University of Pennsylvania LJS 299