Bidspirit auction | AVICENNA. (Abu Ali al-Hussein ibn

AVICENNA. (Abu Ali al-Hussein ibn Abdallah ibn Sina). HaKanon HaGadol  - Canon Medicinae. Translated from Arabic into Hebrew by Nathan of Cento (HaMe'ati). FIRST EDITION. Five parts bound in one. Double columns. Early annotations in Hebrew and Latin in several hands. A wide-margined copy.  Formerly in The Library of the Valmadonna Trust. ff. 477 (of 480), opening three leaves provided in facsimile. Previous owner’s marks, few initial leaves stained or soiled, one leaf laid to size, occasional expert marginal repairs, otherwise an attractive copy. Bound in Valmadonna-custom deep-cherry blind-tooled morocco, spine titled in gilt, with twin clasps and hinges. Thick folio. Housed in fitted slip-case. Vinograd, Naples 26; Goff Heb-4; Offenberg 6; Steinschneider, p. 767, no. 4486-1; Thes. A71; Wineman Cat. 41; Friedenwald, p. 45. Naples, Azriel ben Joseph Aschkenazi Gunzenhauser, 1491-92. THE FIRST MEDICAL TEXT TO APPEAR IN HEBREW.  The Persian ibn Sina, or Avicenna (980-1037) as he was referred to in the West, was one of the greatest physicians and philosophers of the Muslim world. In the latter realm he would exert a profound influence on Maimonides. Avicenna wrote a work on cardiology, al-Adwiya al-Qalbiyya (“On Remedies for the Heart”), but by far, his most important contribution to the field of medicine is this work: Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb (“Canon of Medicine”), which was translated into Hebrew by Nathan HaMe'ati in 1279. In this truly encyclopedic undertaking, Avicenna drew upon the earlier teachings of Hippocrates and Galen and upon his own empirical observations. The five parts of the Canon were published by Gunzenhauser in three volumes (here bound together in one). The contents range from common ailments to life-threatening diseases, and provide an extensive pharmacopeia. The Canon remained one of the fundamental works of instruction in European medical schools until the mid-16th-century. See S.M. Afnan, Avicenna, His Life and Works (1958); N. Berger (ed.) Jews and Medicine (1995) p. 56; EJ, Vol. III, cols. 955-960. The Naples Canon is somewhat notorious among Hebrew bibliographers due to the difficulty in presenting a precise collation of the work. No consensus seems to exist. See Treasures of the Valmadonna Trust Library - Otzroth Ya’akov, Incunables no. 47. See also National Library of Israel, ‘This Iranian Trailblazer Revolutionized Global Medicine and Thought': https://blog.nli.org.il/en/lbh-avicenna/