Illuminated leaf from Gerard of Cremona's Latin translation of Abu Bakr al-Razi (Rhasis), [France, 14th century]

Abu Bakr al-Razi (Rhasis)

Leaf from Gerard of Cremona’s Latin translation of Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya Razi (Rhasis), Nonus Almansoris, illuminated manuscript on vellum. [France (Montpellier and/or Paris?), early 14th century]

Single leaf, c. 375 × 255 mm, written in two columns of 48 lines in a somewhat round gothic bookhand in brown and red inks, decorated with numerous one-line initials alternately red or blue, two- and three-line initials in red or blue with penwork flourishing of the other colour, and TWO LARGE ILLUMINATED INITIALS INCORPORATING DRAGONS, ETC., WITH EXTENSIONS REACHING AROUND THREE SIDES OF THE TEXT ON WHICH ARE PERCHED ANIMALS, HUMANS, AND HYBRID CREATURES, INCLUDING A WOMAN PLAYING A DULCIMER, A MAN SHOOTING AN ARROW AT A BIRD, AND A DOG BARKING AT A VIOLIN-PLAYING MONEY, with running-title in the upper margin and a 19th-century inscription in the lower margin (see Provenance); one small hole in the inner upper corner and a light stain in the outer upper corner, neither affecting the text or decoration, slight darkening of the outer edges, slight wear to the running-title, minor flaking of pigments and gold, but overall in very fine condition.

PROVENANCE

1. The somewhat rounded (almost Italianate) script and rather pale brown ink suggest that the manuscript may have been written in southern France, perhaps at Montpellier, which in the 14th century was the leading centre in Europe for the study of medicine. The high quality of the illumination, however, suggests that it may have been decorated in Paris.

2. It was demonstrably still in use in the 15th century when its owner numbered the lists of chapters, using medieval Arabic numerals (in which, for example, the shape of ‘5’ looks like a modern ‘4’ and ‘7’ is rotated counter-clockwise.

3. Unidentified 19th-century German owner: with his inscription in which he sends it to a friend and asks for its return in due course, apparently signed ‘c. Pony’(?).

4. Kalebdjian Frères, Paris, their no. 537; sold in 1924 to:

5. Robert Lehman (1891–1969), ‘who may be counted among the greatest twentieth-century collectors of manuscripts’ (Pia Palladino, Treasures of a Lost Art, 2003, p. 2); his no. A.3 (subsequently renumbered MS 6); bequeathed to his son:

6. Robin Lehman (b. 1936); on deposit at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, until acquired in 2004 by7. Jörn Günther; from whom it was acquired by the present owner.

TEXT

The first rubric tells the reader that this is the book of Rhasis, called Almansor, translated from Arabic into Latin by Master Gerard of Cremona at Toledo: ‘Incipit liber Rasis, qui dicitur Almasorius, a magistro Giraudo Cremonensi apud Toletum, ex Arabico in Latinum translatus a libri filii Zaccarie. Incipit liber qui ab eo vocatur Almasorius, eo quod regis Almasori, filii Ysaac, precepto editus est. Prologus. Rubrica prima.’ and this is followed by the start of the prologue text: ‘In hoc meo libro aggregabo regi cui benedicat deus …’. Lower down the same column, the main text starts with a rubric ‘Predicatione tractatum huius libri. Pars prima de figura et forma est membrorum …’; in the second column there is the start of a list (which continues on the verso) of the chapters of the work. 

This is the start of the Nonus Almansoris, i.e. Book IX of the Liber Almansoris (The Book of Medicine dedicated to Manṣūr), which was often written and circulated as a separate work.

Known as Al-Rhasis (or Rhazes; Man of Ray), after his birthplace, Ray, near Tehran, was a student of philosophy, logic, metaphysics, poetry, and music. He is said to have begun his medical studies aged thirty, and soon became one of the most famous physicians of his day, as well as director of the hospital of Baghdad. Numerous books on medicine, chemistry, philosophy, and alchemy are attributed to his pen.

Of the ten books of the encyclopaedic Liber Almansoris, Book IX concerns pathology, and it became a standard work on therapeutic medicine; it was translated, with commentaries, several times, and remained popular long after the medieval period, studied y such Renaissance physicians as Vesalius.

This was the first leaf of the parent manuscript, and doubtless the most lavishly illuminated. It embodies ninth-century Arabic learning translated into Latin in the ‘twelfth-century Renaissance’, produced for a wealthy bibliophile in fourteenth-century France.

LITERATURE

Seymour de Ricci and W. J. Wilson, Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, II (New York: The Bibliographical Society of America, 1937; repr. 1961), p. 1704