A hitherto unrecorded and unknown edition of the important Islamic medical work of the Middle Ages, “The Qanun Fi-L-Tibb” of Ibn Sina (the Canon of Medicine of Avicenna) has just been acquired by the library of the Jewish Theological Seminary, it was announced today.
In Hebrew, the library’s new acquisition is printed on vellum and is the only such copy known to exist. Although it was issued at the same time as the Hebrew edition printed on paper, in Naples in 1491, it apparently escaped the notice of both the scholars and book collectors.
Ibn Sina, famous eleventh century Islamic philosopher-scientist, prepared the five-volume Qanun as a compendium of ancient and Muslim knowledge in the field of medicine. Because of the comprehensive scope of the work, the Qanun was studied throughout European universities for over six centuries and Ibn Sina came to be known as the “Prince of Physicians.”
The Qanun gives many examples of diagnosis, outlines pharmacological methods and considers the usage of 760 drugs. It carefully describes skin troubles, contagious diseases and nervous disorders, both psychological and pathological.
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