Friday, 4 November 2016

Tacuinum sanitatis (Bibliothèque municipale, Rouen, Ms. 3054)

Lettuce, f. unknown.

Colloquial name(s): Tacuinum sanitatis, by Ibn Butlân
Official name(s): Bibliothèque municipale, Rouen, Ms. 3054 [formerly Leber 1088]

Date: 1450s (source)
Origin: unknown

Online facsimile available via: Wikimedia commons - only a few folios are currently available online

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 manuscript is considered to be a copy from Biblioteca Casanatense, Ms. 4182 (source). It was seperated into two parts in the 19th Century - the first 53 sheets are kept in the Bibliothèque municipale in Rouen whilst the remainder is in a private collection in Lichenstein (source and source).

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

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