Monday 24 October 2016

Tacuinum sanitatis (BNF Latin 9333)

Wool clothing (vestits lanea), f. 103r.

Colloquial name(s): Tacuinum sanitatis, by Ibn Butlân
Official name(s): Bibliothèque nationale de France, Latin 9333

Date: 1445-51 (source and source)
Origin: Rhineland, Germany (source)

Online facsimile available via: Bibliothèque nationale de France Gallica digital library

This manuscript is one of several illustrated copies 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).

The known extant illustrated copies of the Tacuinum sanitatis and its derivative manuscripts are as follows (source and source):

This copy of the Tacuinum sanitatis is considered to have been copied from ÖNB, Cod. Ser. N. 2644 Han by a German artist (source).

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