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ABU 'ALI AL-HUSAYN IBN 'ABDULLAH IBN SINA (AVICENNA) (D. 1037 AD): AL-QANUN FI AL-TIBB ABBASID BAGHDAD, FIRST HALF 13TH CENTURY Book One of Avicenna's famous medical encyclopaedia, Arabic manuscript on cream paper, 87ff., each folio with 19ll. of black naskh written in at least two different hands, keywords and phrases overlined in red and green, some marginal notes, the first two and last five folios later added, the last five folios dated 6 Safar AH 1324/1 April 1906, in red morocco with stamped central lobed cartouche, brown leather doublures Folio 10 ? x 7 1/8in. (26 x 18.1cm.)
Al-Qanun fi al-tibb, ‘The Canon of Medicine’, is the celebrated and highly influential medical encyclopaedia of Ibn Sina (b. 980 AD). Drawing on earlier works of Galen, Hippocrates and Aristotle, it contains many original contributions in the fields of anatomy, gynaecology, and contagion, among others. Less focused on observations than other authors, Ibn Sina worked on compiling a rigorous and systematic synthesis of earlier Greco-Arabic science (Paris, 1996, cat.24, p.72). The Canon was transmitted to the West in the Latin translation of Gerard of Cremona (c. 1114-1187) and through no less than 87 further translations continued to be a standard text until the mid-17th century.
According to Emilie Savage-Smith, the Qanun comprises five books. The first book, which our manuscript encompasses, also called kulliyat, concerns general medical principles and deals with anatomy and health. The second book is on 760 simple drugs in alphabetical order. It was the most complete materia medica of its day. The third is on therapy, arranged in order of the site of the ailment from head to toe, in twenty-two funun. The fourth book deals with symptoms and diagnostics and is on those diseases not restricted to a single part of the body, such as fevers. The final book is a pharmacopoeia which presents recipes for compound remedies.
Although numerous copies are preserved throughout the world's libraries, complete manuscripts of the Canon are extremely rare to come by as the work was commonly split into the five separate volumes (Savage-Smith, 2011, pp.220-242). A complete copy of the Canon, although much later than ours and dating to the late 15th century, sold in these Rooms, 27 April 2017, lot 35. Two 12th century copies comprising books one and parts of book three were also sold in these Rooms, 25 October 2018, lot 30.