Alexandrian Summaries of three medical treatises by Galen

Content

The second volume of a set of the treatises of the Greco-Roman physician Galen of Pergamon (جالينوس ; d. ca 216) as summaries for the late-Antique medical schools of Alexandria, the so-called Alexandrian Summaries (جوامع الإسكندرانيين). These summaries were translated by Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq (حنين بن إسحق; d. 873). This copy was collated with a copy owned by Ibn al-Tilmīdh (ابن التلميذ; d. ca 1164), chief physician of the ‘Aḍudī Hospital in Baghdad and author of the Baghdad Formulary (أقراباذين مدينة السلم ; see British Library, MS Or 8293).

The copy is undated, but the fourth owner named in a list of owners' inscriptions (f. 1r) is dated 14 Ṣafar 547/21 May 1152, so one can assume the manuscript was produced within a century before that date.

The title page reads (f. 1r, lines 1-5):

الجزء الثاني من جوامع كتب جالينوس

فيه الأسطقسات . والمزاج .

والقوى الطبيعية . والتشريح .

على رأي الإسكندرانيين ترجمة

حنين بن إسحق

Contents:

• (1) Galen (جالينوس), Alexandrian Summary of On the Elements according to Hippocrates (جوامع كتاب جالينوس في الأسطقسات على رأي أبقراط للإسكندرانيين; ff. 1v-19r);
• (2) Galen (جالينوس), Alexandrian Summary of On Mixture (جوامع كتاب جالينوس في المزاج على رأي الإسكندرانيين; ff. 19v-51r);
• (3) Galen (جالينوس), Alexandrian Summary of On Natural Faculties (جوامع كتاب جالينوس في القوى الطبيعية على رأي الإسكندرانيين; ff. 52r-82r);
• (4) Galen (جالينوس), Alexandrian Summary of On Anatomy for Students (جوامع كتاب جالينوس في التشريح للمتعلمين على رأي الإسكندرانيين; ff. 82v-131v).

Folio 51v is blank.

Extent and format

Codex A collection of pages, usually gathered into quires, and bound between covers. ; ff. ii+131+i

It is grouped into

جوامع كتاب جالينوس في الأسطقسات على رأي أبقراط للإسكندرانيين Jawāmi‘ kitāb Jālīnūs fī al-ūsṭuqussāt ‘alá ra’y Abuqrāṭ lil-Iskandarānīyīn Galen جالينوس

36 images

Ref: Or 9202, ff 1v-19r

جوامع كتاب جالينوس في المزاج على رأي الإسكندرانيين Jawāmi‘ kitāb Jālīnūs fī al-mizāj ‘alá ra’y al-Iskandarānīyīn Galen جالينوس

66 images

Ref: Or 9202, ff 19v-51r

جوامع كتاب جالينوس في القوى الطبيعية على رأي الإسكندرانيين Jawāmi‘ kitāb Jālīnūs fī al-quwá al-ṭabī‘īyah ‘alá ra’y al-Iskandarānīyīn Galen جالينوس

60 images

Ref: Or 9202, ff 52r-82r

جوامع كتاب جالينوس في التشريح للمتعلمين على رأي الإسكندرانيين Jawāmi‘ kitāb Jālīnūs fī al-tashrīḥ lil-muta‘allimīn ‘alá ra’y al-Iskandarānīyīn Galen جالينوس

99 images

Ref: Or 9202, ff 82v-131v

Physical characteristics

Material: Paper

Dimensions: 256 x 172 mm leaf [192 x 118 mm written]

Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil; Arabic-Indic foliation in pencil

Ruling: Misṭarah ; 22 lines per page; vertical spacing 12 lines per 10 cm

Script: Naskh

Ink: Black iron-gall ink; occasional punctuation, marginalia and some of the text in red perhaps by a later hand

Decoration: Decorative owner's inscription in gold (f. 1r); gold ink used for punctuation on first opening (ff. 1v-2r); silk page markers are used to indicate beginnings of texts

Binding: British Museum binding

Condition: Minor waterstains, some wormholes, ff. 1-8 and 128-131 laminated with heat-set tissue; tears to the margins of f. 1 and to the upper corners of ff. 9-17 repaired

Marginalia: Marginal corrections, annotations, and collation notes by various hands

Written in

Arabic in Arabic script

Type

Manuscript

Access & Reference

Original held at

British Library: Oriental Manuscripts

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

Or 9202

History of this record

Date(s)

1050-1152 (CE, Gregorian)

Immediate source of acquisition

Bought from Abdel Ghani Shehab, 14 April 1923

Related material

Finding aids

Hamarneh, Sami, Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts on Medicine and Pharmacy at the British Library (Cairo: Les Editions Universitaires d’Egypte 1975), Item 22, p. 22

Subjects

Medicine, Greek and Roman

People & organisations

GalenḤunayn ibn Isḥāq al-'IbādīHibat Allāh ibn Ṣā'id Ibn al-Tilmīdh

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Alexandrian Summaries of three medical treatises by Galen, British Library: Oriental Manuscripts, Or 9202, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100022531794.0x000001> [accessed 4 December 2024]

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