[Sefer ha-Ḳanon] ... [etc.].

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Author/Creator:

Avicenna, 980-1037, author.

Contributor:

Hirschel, Solomon, 1761-1842, former owner.

Jews' College (London, England), former owner.

Bet din tsedeḳ London ṿeha-medinah (Great Britain), former owner.

Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Standardized Title:

Qānūn fī al-ṭibb. Hebrew

Language:

Arabic

Hebrew

Subjects (All):

Medicine--Early works to 1800.

Medicine.

Medicine, Arab.

Medicine, Medieval.

Toxicology--Early works to 1800.

Toxicology.

Genre:

codices (bound manuscripts)

treatises

Manuscripts, Hebrew -- 15th century.

Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by Solomon Hirschel, first Chief Rabbi of London.

Formerly held in the library of Jews' College (London; stamp, early flyleaf), no. 118 (inscription).

Formerly held in the library of the Bet din tsedeḳ London ṿeha-medinah (Ashkenazi rabbinical court, London), no. 139 (spine).

Sold at auction at Christie, Manson & Woods as part of the collection of the Bet din tsedeḳ London ṿeha-medinah, 23 Jun. 1999, lot 15, to Lawrence J. Schoenberg.

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

Physical Description:

131 leaves : paper ; 195 x 126 (126 x 95) mm bound to 204 x 148 mm

Place of Publication:

[Italy], [14--]

Language Note:

Hebrew.

Summary:

Books 1-3 and the beginning of Book 4 of Avicenna's 11th-century comprehensive medical work, translated into Hebrew from Arabic. At the end of the volume is Maimonides's 12th-century treatise on poisons, a much shorter work, which is also lacking the end of the text and was also translated from Hebrew to Arabic, by Mosheh Ibn Tibon. Marginal notes in Hebrew, with at least one in Italian (f. 44v).

Contents:

1. f.1r-117v: [Sefer ha-Ḳanon (incomplete) / Avicenna]

2. f.118r-131v: [Maʼamar ha-nikhbad (incomplete) / Moses Maimonides]

Notes:

Ms. codex.

Title supplied by cataloger.

Collation: Paper, iii (modern) + i (early) + 131 + ii (modern); 1¹²(-1) 2-8¹² 9¹⁴ 10¹² 11¹⁰; gatherings 1-9 signed with the first through ninth letters of the Hebrew alphabet, lower left corner last verso; [1-131], modern foliation in pencil, upper left recto. Catchwords on last verso of each gathering, lower left verso.

Layout: Written in 26-27 long lines.

Script: Written in Italian semi-cursive Hebrew script.

Decoration: Occasional manicules (f. 18r, 23r, 26r, 27v, 38r, 112v, 122v, 125v).

Binding: Modern calf

Origin: Written in Italy in the 15th century.

Local Notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Cited in:

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 82 (LJS 311).

Publications about:

Pearce, S.J., "Matter, meaning, and Maimonides:the material text as an early modern map of medieval debates on translation and esotericism,” in Elisheva Baumgarten, Ruth Mazo Karras, and Katelyn Mesler, eds., Entangled histories: knowledge, authority and transmission in thirteenth-century Jewish cultures (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016), p. 218.

Herman, Nicholas. Making the Renaissance Manuscript: Discoveries from Philadelphia Libraries (exh. cat.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Libraries, 2020. 46, 264-65 (cat. 79).

Cited as:

Avicenna, Sefer ha-Ḳanon (LJS 311). Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania.

Contains:

Maimonides, Moses, 1135-1204. Kitāb al-sumūm wa-al-mutaḥarriz min al-adwiyah al-qattālah. Hebrew.

Ibn Tibon, Mosheh, active 13th century, translator.

OCLC:

773128284

Online:

The Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative Fund Home Page