[Liber de cirurgia, illustrated with surgical instruments] [electronic resource]

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Abū al-Qāsim Khalaf ibn ʻAbbās al-Zahrāwī, -1013?, Author.

أبو القاسم خلف بن عباس الزهراوي, -١٠١٣?, Author.

Series:

Bloomsbury Arcadian Online Library: History of Science and Medicine

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Surgery--Early works to 1800.

Surgery.

Surgical instruments and apparatus--Early works to 1800.

Surgical instruments and apparatus.

Penn Provenance:

The text was first printed in Venice in 1501. MacKinney, Checklist of Medical Miniatures in Extant Manuscripts, pp.105-85, records the text in a total of 27 surviving manuscripts, including translations into French. All those she records are in public collections: eight in Italy; five each in Germany, England and France; three in Austria; one in Hungary. There are only two in North America, Yale Medical Library and New York Academy of Medicine. There is no copy in either the National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD, or the Wellcome Institute, London. To this total must be added the present manuscript, the Penzance Library MS (sold in 1939, presently unlocated), and the former Phillipps' MS 3013 (with Rhazes Divisiones), the only other copy known to be in private hands: the former Phillipps' manuscript is c.1300, but is in a much later binding and has approximately one third fewer illustrations. Our manuscript is early and has a large complement of illustrations. Of Mackiney's 27 manuscripts, 6 are described as 13th Century, 3 of c.1300, 16 are 14th Century and two are 15th Century. Of the 27, 10 are MSS of Albucasis' text on its own, and of these, 3 are 13th Century (one with one other text only) and the remainder are medical or surgical miscellanies. Only 7 have illustrations of traction for dislocations, as does ours, and only one of these is 13th century (Albucasis text only). Our manuscript is distinguished therefore for being early, being complete in and of itself, and for being fully illustrated.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (75 pages) : illustration

Place of Publication:

[Italy: s.n., 1300]

Local Notes:

Medieval, probably contemporary, pink calf over oak boards, blind ruled with double lines in a lattice pattern, remains of brass clasps and catches (a few scratches, minor repairs to edges and corners.

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.