Lot Essay
For a Turkish Qur'an with similar style of illumination and dated the same year see: The Holy Qur'an in Manuscript, Bernard Quaritch exhibition catalogue, Jeddah 1991, no.19.
Details
Kitab Muntakhab Shifa
Ottoman, Sha'ban AH 962/June 1555 AD
a handbook of medecine including chapters on the principles of keeping healthy, diseases and their treatment and a pharmocoepia, Arabic manuscript on buff paper, 274ff. plus two flyleaves, each with 17ll. of neat strong black naskh, occasional words and phrases in red or gold, diagrams in red and black, gold margins between black rules, similarly deliniated outer plain panel, (negligible staining and smudging), gold and polychrome very finely illuminated opening bifolio with cross-hatched red clouds between the lines of text, gold roundels between phrases and the heading in pale blue, (slight smudging, repairs to edges), colophon on final folio signed by Abu Bakr b. Darwish Muhammad al-Saloniki and dated Sha'ban 962, original rich brown morocco binding and flap with gold stamped floral medallion and pendants and gold borders (repaired, some scuffing and wear to edges)
folio 10½ x 6¼in. (26.5 x 16.1cm.)
text 6¼ x 3¼in. (16 x 8.2cm.)
Ottoman, Sha'ban AH 962/June 1555 AD
a handbook of medecine including chapters on the principles of keeping healthy, diseases and their treatment and a pharmocoepia, Arabic manuscript on buff paper, 274ff. plus two flyleaves, each with 17ll. of neat strong black naskh, occasional words and phrases in red or gold, diagrams in red and black, gold margins between black rules, similarly deliniated outer plain panel, (negligible staining and smudging), gold and polychrome very finely illuminated opening bifolio with cross-hatched red clouds between the lines of text, gold roundels between phrases and the heading in pale blue, (slight smudging, repairs to edges), colophon on final folio signed by Abu Bakr b. Darwish Muhammad al-Saloniki and dated Sha'ban 962, original rich brown morocco binding and flap with gold stamped floral medallion and pendants and gold borders (repaired, some scuffing and wear to edges)
folio 10½ x 6¼in. (26.5 x 16.1cm.)
text 6¼ x 3¼in. (16 x 8.2cm.)