Monday, 31 October 2016

Medical encyclopaedia (ÖNB, Cod. 5264 Han)

Reaping. f. 114r.

Colloquial name(s): none
Official name(s): Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 5264 Han [formerly Med. 2]

Date: c. 1470 (source), third quarter of the 15th C (source)
Origin: Lodi region, Italy, by Giovanni Cadamosto of Lodi's workshop (source)

Online facsimile available via: Österreichische Nationalbibliothek

This manuscript is one of several that are derivatives of the Tacuinum sanitatis, a medieval healthy living guide which is a Latin translation of an 11th Century Arab medical treatise, Taqwīm as-sihha bi al-Ashab al-Sitta, written by the Christian physician and philosopher Ibn Butlan of Baghdad (d. 1063) (source). The Taqwīm synthesised a variety of Greek-derived medical science and traditions and considered approximately 280 health-related items including food, drink, climate, bodily activities and clothing (source). The translation into Latin was commissioned by the Court of Naples and Sicily and completed by 1266 (source). This Latin version was copied repeatedly and circulated around Europe, with the first illustrated copies being commissioned in the late 14th Century by northern Italian nobility (source).

Derivative copies merged abbreviated versions of the Tacuinum sanitatis (usually the entries regarding food) with medical encyclopaedias and/or Theoprastus' Historia Plantarum, an early botanical handbook that included the medical uses of plants. This manuscript consists of a medical encyclopaedia followed by some Tacuinum sanitatis entries.

The known extant illustrated copies of the Tacuinum sanitatis and its derivative manuscripts are as follows (source and source):
The online facsimile of this manuscript lacks its pagination. However, folio numbers are written in ink in the top right corner of each recto page. The Tacuinum sanitatis entries start at f. 81r (p. 173).

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