Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T13:14:11.806Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 3 - De sexaginta animalibus

A Latin Translation of an Arabic Manāfiʿ al-ḥayawān Text on the Pharmaceutical Properties of Animals

from Part I - Transmission of Pharmacological Knowledge

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2023

Petros Bouras-Vallianatos
Affiliation:
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Dionysios Stathakopoulos
Affiliation:
University of Cyprus
Get access

Summary

This chapter will discuss a Latin translation of an Arabic text on the pharmacological uses of the individual body parts of animals. De sexaginta animalibus is placed in the context of its original Arabic genre of works on the useful or occult virtues of animals, minerals, and plants. This is the first detailed scholarly treatment of this text, which has been mentioned in passing by other scholars. It argues that it is a translation of a work on the properties of the body parts of animals by the eleventh-century physician ʿUbaydallāh ibn Bukhtīshūʿ, by comparing the text with the manāfiʿ (usefulness) section from an Arabic Ibn Bukhtīshūʿ bestiary. Other issues covered include the copious use of transliterated Arabic terminology, particularly in regard to the names of the numerous animals themselves and confusion in their identification, the order of the animals (which aids identification of partial copies of the manuscript), cited authorities, and ascribed authorship. The chapter also argues for the existence of two recensions of the text in the manuscript tradition, with a comparison of an entry found in both recensions with the Ibn Bukhtīshūʿ text and ʿĪsā ibn ʿAlī’s Book on the Useful Properties of Animal Parts.

Type
Chapter
Information
Drugs in the Medieval Mediterranean
Transmission and Circulation of Pharmacological Knowledge
, pp. 104 - 129
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abeele, B. van den. 1999. ‘Le “De animalibus” d’Aristote dans le monde latin: Modalités de sa réception médiévale’, Frühmittelalterliche Studien 33: 287318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burnett, C. 2001. ‘The Coherence of the Arabic-Latin Translation Programme in Toledo in the Twelfth Century’, Science in Context 14: 249–88.Google Scholar
Burnett, C. 2002. ‘Filosofiá natural, secretos and magia’, in Ballester, L. Garcia (ed.), Historia de ciencia y de la téchnica en la Corona de Castilla, vol. I. Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y León, Consejería de Educación y Cultura, 95144.Google Scholar
Contadini, A. 1989. ‘The Kitāb Manāfiʿ al-ḥayawān in the Escorial Library’, Islamic Art 3: 3357.Google Scholar
Contadini, A. 1992. ‘The Kitāb Naʿt al-ḥayawān and the Ibn Bakhtīshūʿ Illustrated Bestiaries’. SOAS, University of London: PhD thesis.Google Scholar
Contadini, A. 1994. ‘The Ibn Buḫtīšūʿ Bestiary Tradition: The Text and Its Sources’, Medicina nei Secoli Arte e Scienza 6(2): 349–64.Google Scholar
Contadini, A. 1996. ‘The Horse in Two Manuscripts of Ibn Bakhtīshūʿ’s Kitāb Manāfiʿ al-Ḥayawān’, in Alexander, D. (ed.), Furusiyya. Vol. I: The Horse in the Art of the Near East. Riyadh: King Abdulaziz Public Library, 142–7.Google Scholar
Contadini, A. 2003. ‘A Bestiary Tale: Text and Image of the Unicorn in the Kitāb naʿt al-ḥayawān (British Library, or. 2784)’, Muqarnas 2: 1733.Google Scholar
Contadini, A. 2008. ‘The Zoological-Medicinal Material in the Arcadian Library Manuscript’, in Burnett, C. (ed.), Ibn Baklārish’s Book of Simples: Medical Remedies between Three Faiths in Twelfth Century Spain. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 133–59.Google Scholar
Contadini, A. 2012. A World of Beasts: A Thirteenth-Century Illustrated Arabic Book on Animals (the Kitāb Naʿt al-Ḥayawān) in the Ibn Bakhtīshūʿ Tradition. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Dols, M. W. 1987. ‘The Origins of the Islamic Hospital: Myth and Reality’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 61: 367–90.Google Scholar
Ferraces Rodríguez, A. ed. 2015. Curae quae ex hominibus animalibus fiunt: Estudio y edicion critica. Santiago de Compostela: Andavira.Google Scholar
Garfagnini, G. C., Pomaro, G., Rossi, P., and Velli, A. 1982. Catalogo di manoscritti filosofici nelle biblioteche italiane, vol. IV. Florence: Olschki.Google Scholar
Horden, P. 2013. ‘The Uses of Medical Manuscripts’, in Zipser, B. (ed.), Medical Books in the Byzantine World. Bologna: Eikasmós: 16.Google Scholar
Kaimakis, D. ed. 1976. Die Kyraniden. Hain: Meisenheim am Glan.Google Scholar
Käs, F. ed. 2012. Die Risāla fī l-Ḫawāṣṣ des Ibn al-Ǧazzār: Die arabische Vorlage des Albertus Magnus zugeschriebenen Traktats De mirabilibus mundi. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Ker, N. R., and Piper, A. J. 1992. Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, vol. IV. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kruk, R. 1985. ‘Hedgehogs and Their “Chicks”: A Case History of the Aristotelian Reception in Arabic Zoology’, Zeitschrift für Geschichte der arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften 2: 205–34.Google Scholar
Kruk, R. 2010. ‘Elusive Giraffes: Ibn Abi l-Ḥawāfir’s Badāʾiʿ al-Akwān and Other Animal Books’, in Contadini, A. (ed.), Arab Painting: Text and Image in Illustrated Arabic Manuscripts. Leiden: Brill: 4964.Google Scholar
Láng, B. 2008. Unlocked Books: Manuscripts of Learned Magic in the Medieval Libraries of Central Europe. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Lugt, M. van der. 2009. ‘“Abominable Mixtures”: The Liber Vaccae in the Medieval West, or the Dangers and Attractions of Natural Magic’, Traditio 64: 229–77.Google Scholar
Mairhofer, D., Neuhauser, W., Rossini, M. et al. 2008. Katalog der Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Innsbruck, vol. V. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.Google Scholar
McVaugh, M., 2009. ‘Towards a Stylistic Grouping of the Translations of Gerard of Cremona’, Mediaeval Studies 71: 99112.Google Scholar
Moorat, S. A. J. 1962–73. Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library. 3 vols. London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine.Google Scholar
Mynors, R. 1963. Catalogue of the Manuscripts of Balliol College Oxford. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Nagel, S. 1999. ‘Testi con due redazioni attribuite ad un medesimo autore: il caso del De animalibus di Pietro Ispano’, in Guldentops, G. and Steel, C. (eds.), Aristotle’s Animals in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Leuven: Leuven University Press: 212–37.Google Scholar
Page, S. 2013. Magic in the Cloister: Pious Motives, Illicit Interests, and Occult Approaches to the Medieval Universe. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Pseudo-Galen, . 1609. Spurii Galeno ascripti libri. Giunta: Venice.Google Scholar
Raggetti, L. ed. 2018. ʿĪsā ibn ʿAlī’s Book on the Useful Properties of Animal Parts: Edition, Translation and Study of a fluid Tradition. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
al-Rāzī, (Rhazes). 1497. Almansoris liber nonus cum expositione Syllani. Venice: Otinum Papiensem de Luna.Google Scholar
Ruiz Bravo-Villasante, C. trans. 1980. Libro de las Utilidades de los Animales. Madrid: Fundación Universitaria Española.Google Scholar
Ruska, J. 1939. ‘Pseudepigraphe Rasis-Schriften’, Osiris 7: 3194.Google Scholar
Saif, L. 2016. ‘The Cows and the Bees: Arabic Sources and Parallels for Pseudo-Plato’s Liber vaccae (Kitāb al-Nawāmīs)’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 79: 148.Google Scholar
Salmòn Muñiz, F. 2002. ‘La medicina y las traducciones toledanas del siglo XII’, in Garcia Ballester, L. (ed.), Historia de ciencia y de la téchnica en la Corona de Castilla, vol. I. Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y León, Consejería de Educación y Cultura, 631–46.Google Scholar
Segolini, M. P. ed. 1998. Libri medicinae Sexti Placiti Papyriensis ex animalibus pecoribus et bestiis vel avibus Concordantiae. Hildesheim: Olms-Weidmann.Google Scholar
Sezgin, F. 1970. Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, vol. III. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Stadler, H. ed. 1916–20. Albertus Magnus. De animalibus libri XXVI. 2 vols. Munster: Aschendorff.Google Scholar
Steinschneider, M. 1956. Die hebräischen Übersetzungen des Mittelalters. Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt.Google Scholar
Thorndike, L. 1923. A History of Magic and Experimental Science, vol. II. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Thorndike, L., and Kibre, P. 1963. A Catalogue of Incipits of Medieval Scientific Writings in Latin. Cambridge, MA: Mediaeval Academy of America.Google Scholar
Ventura, I. 2005. ‘The Curae ex animalibus in the Medical Literature of the Middle Ages: The Example of the Illustrated Herbals’, in van den Abeele, B. (ed.), Bestiares médiévaux: Nouvelles perspectives sur les manuscripts et les traditions textuelles. Brepols: Louvain-la-Neuve, 213–48.Google Scholar
Wellmann, M. ed. 1907. Pedanii Dioscuridis Anazarbei De materia medica libri quinque. Berlin: Weidmann.Google Scholar
Zonta, M. 1996. ‘Minerology, Botany and Zoology in Medieval Hebrew Encylopaedias: “Descriptive” and “Theoretical” Approach to Arabic Sources’, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 6(2): 263–15.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×