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Lot Essay
An inscription on the final folio of Book One states that it was collated against Ibn Tilmidh's own manuscript, itself copied from a manuscript in Ibn Sina's own hand. Abu al-Hasan Hibatullah bin Abi al-'Ala Sa'id Ibrahim Ibn Tilmidh (d. 1165 AD) was a prominent Christian Arab physician of Baghdad. A gifted author, he was highly esteemed as a physician by his contemporaries and successors and remained until his death the director of the 'Adudi hospital in Baghdad. He used Greek works and Ibn Sina's Qanun as the basis of his teaching on medicine (art. Ibn Tilmidh, Leiden, 1986-2000, vol.III, p.956). A carbon dating test supports the 12th century date, consistent with the life time of Ibn Tilmidh (available upon request).
Ibn Sina, also known as Avicenna, was born in 980 in Afshana, near Bukhara. He grew up in the Samanid capital where his father had close links to the ruling emirs and the young Ibn Sina was given a fine education. He then moved to Gurganj, Jurjan, Rayy, Hamadan and Isfahan. He was vizier to the Buyid ruler of Hamadhan Shams al-Dawla (d.1021), before serving 'Ala al-Dawla (d. 1041), the Kakuyid prince of Isfahan. It is under 'Ala al-Dawla's protection that Ibn Sina completed two of his greatest works, both redacted in Arabic: the present Qanun and the Kitab al-Shifa, a philosophical encyclopaedia (Paris, 1996, p.53). The details of his early life are well-known from his autobiography, later continued as a biography by his devoted student Abu 'Ubayd al-Juzjani (fl. 11th century). Ibn Sina died in 1037.
Al-Qanun fi al-tibb (‘The Canon of Medicine’) is the celebrated and highly influential medical encyclopaedia of Ibn Sina. 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 (kitab), 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.
The Bodleian Library has thirteen copies of the work, all incomplete, as well as Judaeo-Arabic copies. Although numerous copies are preserved throughout the worlds 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). The earliest dated copy of the Qanun appears to have been sold at Sotheby's, London, 17 October 1983, lot 365. It contained parts of Book IV and was dated AH 466/1073 AD. An 11th century undated copy, either complete or fragmentary, is said to be in the Muzah-i Kilisa-yi Araminah Library in Isfahan (see Roper, 1992, vol.III, p.476). Another early copy of Book III was offered at Sotheby's, London, 25 April 2017, lot 15. It bore an inscription on the first folio dated AH 538/1143-44 AD. The latter is contemporary to the present two volumes. A complete copy of the Canon, although much later and dating to the late 15th century, sold at Christie's, London, 27 April 2017, lot 35.
See also Brockelmann GAL I 457 (597) no.82 and GAL S i 823-4 no.82.
Ibn Sina, also known as Avicenna, was born in 980 in Afshana, near Bukhara. He grew up in the Samanid capital where his father had close links to the ruling emirs and the young Ibn Sina was given a fine education. He then moved to Gurganj, Jurjan, Rayy, Hamadan and Isfahan. He was vizier to the Buyid ruler of Hamadhan Shams al-Dawla (d.1021), before serving 'Ala al-Dawla (d. 1041), the Kakuyid prince of Isfahan. It is under 'Ala al-Dawla's protection that Ibn Sina completed two of his greatest works, both redacted in Arabic: the present Qanun and the Kitab al-Shifa, a philosophical encyclopaedia (Paris, 1996, p.53). The details of his early life are well-known from his autobiography, later continued as a biography by his devoted student Abu 'Ubayd al-Juzjani (fl. 11th century). Ibn Sina died in 1037.
Al-Qanun fi al-tibb (‘The Canon of Medicine’) is the celebrated and highly influential medical encyclopaedia of Ibn Sina. 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 (kitab), 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.
The Bodleian Library has thirteen copies of the work, all incomplete, as well as Judaeo-Arabic copies. Although numerous copies are preserved throughout the worlds 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). The earliest dated copy of the Qanun appears to have been sold at Sotheby's, London, 17 October 1983, lot 365. It contained parts of Book IV and was dated AH 466/1073 AD. An 11th century undated copy, either complete or fragmentary, is said to be in the Muzah-i Kilisa-yi Araminah Library in Isfahan (see Roper, 1992, vol.III, p.476). Another early copy of Book III was offered at Sotheby's, London, 25 April 2017, lot 15. It bore an inscription on the first folio dated AH 538/1143-44 AD. The latter is contemporary to the present two volumes. A complete copy of the Canon, although much later and dating to the late 15th century, sold at Christie's, London, 27 April 2017, lot 35.
See also Brockelmann GAL I 457 (597) no.82 and GAL S i 823-4 no.82.