HALY ABBAS. AL-MAJUSI, 'Ali ibn 'Abbas (d. 994)

Liber totius medicine necessaria continens quem sapientissimus Haly filius abbas discipulus abimeher moysi filii seiar edidit: regi[que] inscripsit unde et regalis dispositionis nomen assumpsit. Et a stephano philosophie discipulo ex arabica lingua in Latinam satis ornatam reductus. Necnon a domino michaele de capella artis et medicine doctore fecundis sinonimis a multis et diversis autoribus ab eo collectis illustrat[us] sum[m]aq[u]e c[um] dilige[n]tia impressus, 1523. [Colophon:] Lugduni typis Jacobi myt exacte impressus fuit Anno domini millesimo quingentesima xxiii. die vero. xviii.men...

      Lyon: Jacob Myt, 1523. 4to: [maltese cross]8 a8 b4 c--z8 [et]8 [con]8 [rum]8 A--O8 (blank O8), 324 leaves, ff. [8] 5--319 [1]. Gothic letter in double columns. Title printed in red within an elaborate woodcut border, several lines printed in red on [maltese cross]1v, [maltese cross]2r and a1r. Woodcut initials. Leaf size and condition: 189 x 139mm. Title soiled and inked over in places; short tears in margin of next leaf repaired; paper flaw in corner of x6 affecting a few letters; a few headlines shaved; several gatherings lightly browned. Overall a good copy. Binding: Seventeenth-century sprinkled calf, gilt spine, red sprinkled edges. Worn, front free endleaf removed. Provenance and annotation: A few words of contemporary annotation. Nineteenth-century inscription 'Ex libris [undeciphered]' on verso of title. Walter Pagel (1896--1983); B. E. J. Pagel (1930--2007). References: Adams A746; Bird 103; Durling 168; Gültlingen II, Myt 86. Second edition (first, Venice 1492). § The al-Maliki, or Liber regius, of al-Majusi (Haly Abbas) was the leading treatise of medicine for a hundred years, when it was displaced by ibn Sina's (Avicenna's) Canon (Garrison--Morton 42, citing the 1492 edition). According to Sarton it is 'more systematic and concise than Razi's Hawi, but more practical than Avicenna's Qanun, by which it was superseded'. Dealing with both the theory and practice of medicine, Sarton says the best parts are those devoted to dietetics and the materia medica. He also notes al-Majusi's rudimentary conception of the capillary system; interesting clinical observations; and 'proof of the motions of the womb during parturition (the child does not come out; it is pushed out)'. The first edition, Venice 1492, is based on the translation by Stephen of Antioch, completed in 1127; the same translation is used here, with annotations by Michael de Capella. An earlier translation by Constantine of Africa was published in part in Constantine's works (Basle 1539) and in part by Julius Pagel in 1906. Literature: Sarton, I, p. 677.