One of the most famous medical texts ever written
Liber canonis totius medicine.
4to. (8), 453 ff. Title-page printed in red within an elaborate woodcut architectural frame; 115 metal-cut decorated initials. Contemporary blind-tooled brown calf with 6 strips of alternating horizontal rolls; remnants of closing ties.
€ 45,000.00
One the most important medical works of the Middle Ages, in a contemporary binding. This edition includes the complete Qanun, the most authoritative medical text of the Islamic world, written in Arabic by Ibn Sina (ca. 980-1037), and includes the Latin translation of Gherardo da Cremona (ca. 1114-1187), which formed the basis of medical training in the Western world from the early 13th to the mid-17th century. The present Lyon edition appears to be very scarce: only four other copies are listed in sales records of the past century.
Completed in 1025, al-Qanun (also known as the Canon of Medicine) is divided into five books, which discuss the basic principles of medicine, the materia medica (listing about 800 drugs), pathology, diseases affecting the body as a whole, and finally the formulary. It was first printed in Latin translation in 1472 and went through many editions. The present work is the second complete Lyon edition, the first having been printed in 1498 by Jean Trechsel, and an abridged version appeared in 1508. The present edition has the same contents as that published in Venice in 1505, but in addition comprises the Life of Avicenna by Franciscus Calphurnius and "annotationes, errata et castigationes in Avicennae opera" by the French physician Symphorien Champier.
Ibn Sina, known in the West by his Latinized name Avicenna, was physician to the ruling caliphs. The influence of his Qanun can hardly be overestimated. Translated into Latin in the 12th century, it became a standard textbook of Galenic medicine, influencing many generations of physicians. "One of the most famous medical texts ever written, a complete exposition of Galenism. Neuburger says: 'It stands for the epitome of all precedent development, the final codification of all Graeco-Arabic medicine'. It dominated the medical schools of Europe and Asia for five centuries" (Garrison/M.).
17th-century ownership annotation of the Jesuits' College in Fribourg in the upper margin of the title-page ("Collegii S.J. Friburg Buisy 1664"), surrounding a crossed-out annotation ("Ex ..."); identical ownership stamps on the verso of title-page and the verso of the final leaf (monogram "VF" within a laurel wreath, and an unidentified university library stamp).
Professionally restored, with the contemporary upper and lower covers laid down; contemporary leather has cracked in places. Ocasional foxing and soiling to margins, 16th-century annotations in the margins of some leaves, upper margin trimmed somewhat short, affecting a few annotations. Brown spots on the first and a few final leaves, a waterstain in the lower inner margin of the last few leaves, wormholes in the upper margin of the last leaf. Lacks the free endpapers and the final blank leaf. Otherwise in good condition.
Durling 380. USTC 145535. Cf. PMM 11. Garrison/Morton 43. Lilly Library, Notable Medical Books, p. 53. Not in Baudrier.
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