Friday 14 October 2016

Theatrum sanitatis (Biblioteca Casanatense, Ms. 4182)

Autumn, folio no. unknown.


Colloquial name(s): Tacuinum sanitatis, by Ibn Butlân
Official name(s): Biblioteca Casanatense, Ms. 4182

Date: 1390-1400 (source)
Origin: Lombardy region, N. Italy, by Giovannino de Grassi's workshop (source)

Online facsimile available via: Wikimedia commons - not all folios are currently available online


This manuscript is one of several illustrated copies of the Tacuinum sanitatis, although the only one known by the alternative title, Theatrum sanitatis. The Tacuinum sanitatis is 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):

Wikimedia commons provides basic descriptions of the illustrations of this manuscript (in Italian) but does not provide folio numbers.

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