IBN SINA (AVICENNA) (D. 1037 AD): AL-QANUN (CANON)
IBN SINA (AVICENNA) (D. 1037 AD): AL-QANUN (CANON)

ROME, TYPOGRAPHIA MEDICEA, ITALY, 1593 AD

Details
IBN SINA (AVICENNA) (D. 1037 AD): AL-QANUN (CANON)
ROME, TYPOGRAPHIA MEDICEA, ITALY, 1593 AD
In two volumes, 305ff. and 134ff., each with 2 modern fly-leaves, with ornamental woodcut head- and tailpieces, each plate within double type-rule border, colophon of Book II giving the name of the scribe Imam Isma'il bin al-Hassan al-Husayni, Book III incomplete at beginning (p.281 to 428), numbered in Arabic and Latin, added notes in maghribi script, extensive marginal restorations, in modern binding
Folio 13 3/8 x 9in. (34 x 23cm.) (2)

Lot Essay

EDITIO PRINCEPS of Avicenna's highly influential canon of Aristotelian and Islamic medical knowledge. Drawing on earlier work of Galen, Hippocrates and Aristotle, it contains many original contributions in the fields of anatomy, gynaecology, and contagion, among others. The second book of the Canon describes 760 drugs and was the most complete materia medica of its day. The Canon was transmitted to the West in the Latin translation of Gerard of Cremona (c. 1114-1187) and others, and continued to be a standard text until the mid 17th century.

This first edition in Arabic (the first Latin edition appeared at Strassburg c.1473) was printed at the press established in 1590 by Ferdinand de' Medici at the request of Pope Gregory III. The fine Arabic types were designed by Robert Granjon. The press's first publication was the Gospels in Arabic, printed to further missionary work in the Levant. See Adams A-2322; Garrison-Morton 44; NLM/Durling 376; Osler 466; Norman 1951.

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