MS. Marsh 537 (Bodleian Library, Oxford University)

The copy is unsigned and undated, but appears to be possibly from the seventh/thirteenth century. It is a complete copy of the treatise. Tables are employed throughout the copy.

Dimensions 22.1 × 15.2 (text area 18.6 × 11.3) cm; 22−23 lines per page. The title is given in full on the title page (folio 2a) as al-Mughnī fī tadbīr al-amrāḍ wa-maʿrifat al-ʿilal wa-al-aʿrāḍ, where the author is given as: تصنيف الشيخ الجليل الفيلسوف ابو الحسين [كذا] سعيد بن هبة الله بن الحسين الطبيب قدس الله روحه

The treatise has been collated; collation notes occur frequently throughout the text (e.g. folios 8a, 15a, 102b). The copy has been extensively annotated in several hands, including Persian annotations; on folio 12b there is a marginal note in a careful hand written in brown ink quoting Galen (d. c. AD 216), on folio 26b citing Abū ʿImrān (al-Qurṭūbī, Maimonides, d. 601/1204), on folio 46a Ibn al-Tilmīdh (d. 549/1154 or 560/1165), and on folio 82a Yuḥannā ibn [. . .] (= ? Ibn Māsawayh, d. 243/857). There are later marginal and interlinear subject headings written in black ink. The tables usually begin at the top of a folio. The space left between the text of one section and the beginning of the table in the next has often been filled in with recipes written by a later hand using black ink (for example, folios 5a, 7a, 12a, 13a, 14a, 38a, 39b, and 101a).

f. 1 extraneous notes line 8 to bottom of f. 141v reported sayings of Galen on the 12 things a man should not deprive himself of for the preservation of good health

References

A short essay, attributed to Galen, on twelve things which a person should not avoid: urination, spitting, breaking wind, sneezing, belching, eating, sleeping, coughing, vomiting, sexual intercourse, perspiration, and what drips from the head (mucus). No alignment has been found with any other recorded Galenic treatise (genuine or spurious). No other copy has been identified.

The copy is unsigned and undated. The appearance of the paper, ink, and script suggests a possible dating of the seventh/thirteenth-century.

Dimensions 22.1 x 15.2 (text area 18.6 x 11.3) cm; 23 lines per page. The attribution to Galen is given in the first line. The copy appears to have been made by the same copyist, and on the same type of paper, as the other items in the volume.

There are no marginalia.

References

An Arabic translation of a Greek compilation on prognosis and the signs of death based on skin affections, arranged in twenty-five premises (qaḍīyahs). It was written in the fourth or fifth century AD in Alexandria but spuriously attributed to Hippocrates and alleged to have been found in his tomb. Yaḥyá ibn al-Biṭrīq (d. c. 210/825) translated it into Arabic, and it circulated under several different titles, including Risālah fī al-Qaḍāyā, Risālah fī ʿAlāmāt al-mawt, Risālah al-qabrīyah, al-Qaḍāyā al-Ibuqrāṭīyah al-dāllah ʿalá al-mawt, Kitāb al-durj li-Ibuqrāṭ, and Kitāb al-sirr. Its Latin translation also went under several titles, including Secreta Hippocratis, Capsula eburnea, De pustulis et apostematibus significantibus mortem, and De indiciis mortis.

The copy is unsigned and‍ undated, but appears to be possibly a copy from the seventh/thirteenth century and may be the earliest recorded copy of the treatise. It is a complete copy of the short treatise.

Dimensions 22.1 × 15.2 (text area 18.6 × 11.3) cm; 23 lines per page. The title is given as Kitāb al-Buthūr as a heading at the top of folio 142a1. At the start of the treatise (folio 142a2) the title and author are given as Kitāb Ibuqrāṭ alladhī wujida fī qabrihi, and at the end of the treatise (folio 143b7) as Kitāb Ibuqrāṭ fī taqdimat al-ʿilm alladhī wujida fi qabrihi. The translator into Arabic, Yaḥyá ibn al-Biṭrīq, is named on folio 142a2. The name Yaḥyá ibn al-Biṭrīq also occurs as the translator in the margin of Bethesda, Maryland, NLM, MS. A 84, folio 39b (see Savage-Smith, NLM). For variations on the translator’s name in other copies, see Rosa Kuhne Brabant, ‘The Arabic Prototype of the Capsula eburnea’, QSA, 5–6 (1987–8), 431−41, esp. 435−7.

The copy appears to have been made by the same copyist, and on the same type of paper, as the other items in the volume. The qaḍīyahs are marked with a red circle and the heading qāla Ibqurāṭ, except for the first qaḍīyah, which begins with qāla only. There are no catchwords.

There are no marginalia.

References

A didactic poem summarizing the Kitāb al-Buthūr or Risālah fī al-Qaḍāyā. The latter was written in the fourth or fifth century in Alexandria and spuriously attributed to Hippocrates. In many of the manuscript copies, the versification is attributed to Ibn Sīnā (d. 428/1037), while in one of the Bodleian copies the versification is assigned to Shams al-Dīn ibn Makkī (dates unknown).

In the versification sometimes ascribed to Avicenna, 980-1037

The copy is unsigned and undated, but appears to be possibly a manuscript of the seventh/thirteenth century. It may be the earliest recorded copy of the poem. It is a complete copy of the poem, in ninety-six couplets (bayts) in Rajaz metre. There are important differences between the text of Kuhne’s edition, which has only 94 bayts; the differences are substantial enough to suggest a different version or transmission of the text.

Dimensions 22.1 × 15.2 (text area 18.6 × 11.3) cm; 23 lines in each of two columns written within red frames. There is no title given in this copy and no attribution of the versification to Ibn Sīnā. There is a two-line heading, missing in the other recorded copies, that reads as follows (folio 143b9−10): هذا ما وجد فى صحيفة ابقراط الحكيم حين نبشه اقليس الملك واستخرجها من تابوته وقد نظمناه شعراً ليسهل حفظه على مَن اراده ان شاء الله تعلى. This is what was found on top of Hippocrates the physician when the ruler Uqlīs exhumed him and removed it from his coffin. We have put it into verse in order to make its memorizationﻫ easy for whoever desires it.

The legend that the treatise on prognostics by skin affections was found in Hippocrates’ tomb in an ivory casket (durj ʿāj) accounts for the common Latin title Capsula eburnea. For variants of the name of the discoverer of this prognostic manual in Hippocrates’ tomb, see Rosa Kuhne Brabant, ‘The Arabic Prototype of the Capsula eburnea,’ QSA, 5–6 (1987−8), 431−41, esp. 435−7.

The copy appears to have been made by the same copyist, and on the same type of paper, as the other items in the volume. Most of the vocalization has been added later.

On folio 145b, a slightly later hand has added at the bottom of the left-hand column on a therapeutic aphorism attributed to Hippocrates, and in the right-hand column a recipe.

References

The manuscript here catalogued contains portions of the Arabic translation made by Abū ʿUthmān Saʿīd ibn Yaʿqūb al-Dimashqī (d. after 302/914) of the Greek treatise on urine by Magnus of Emesa. The precise identity of Magnus of Emesa is uncertain, but he is possibly to be identified with a physician and teacher in Alexandria around AD 370 by the name of Magnus of Nisibis. For the Greek text on urine by Magnus, see J. L. Ideler, Physici et medici Graeci minores, 2 vols. (Berlin: G. Reimer, 1841–2), i. 307−16.

The copy is unsigned and undated, but appears to be possibly a seventh/thirteenth-century manuscript. The copy is incomplete and the leaves are not in correct order.

Dimensions 22.1 × 15.2 (text area 18.6 × 11.3) cm; 23 lines per page. The author is given as Maghnīs at the beginning of the treatise and as Maghnīs al-Ḥimsī at the end. The title is given in the first line of the treatise. The translator’s name occurs at both the opening and at the end.

Folio 146a has the letter ‘T’ in the lower corner, indicating that it is the start of a quire. The remaining folios of that quire are missing. The text continues with folio 148a, which has the letter ‘V’ in the lower corner, indicating it is the start of another quire, which appears intact through to 153b. The text concludes on folio 147a, ending with line 8 of that folio; folio 147 appears to be the last leaf in the quire labelled ‘V’.

The copy appears to have been made by the same copyist, and on the same type of paper, as the other items in the volume.

There are no marginalia nor catchwords.

*not separately mentioned by Uri

References

A short treatise on prognosis and diagnosis from urine attributed to Galen. It does not appear to be directly related to the Greek writings of Galen concerned with urine. For three Greek tracts on the topic falsely attributed to Galen, see Galen, Opera Omnia, xix, 574−628.

The text breaks off abruptly and is immediately followed by the final leaves transcribed by the same copyist from a treatise on urine by Ishāq ibn Sulaymān al-Isrāʾīlī (d. 320/932 or 344/955). A comparison of the beginning of this treatise ascribed to Galen with the beginning of that written by al-Isrāʾīlī demonstrates that these leaves are not part of al-Isrāʾīlī’s treatise on urine (see also Dietrich, Medicina Arabica, 240).

The copy is unsigned and undated. The appearance of the paper, ink, and script suggests a possible dating of the seventh/thirteenth-century. It is an incomplete copy, with only the beginning of the treatise.

Dimensions 22.1 x 15.2 (text area 18.6 x 11.3) cm; 23 lines per page. The title, attributing the treatise to Galen, is given in large writing at the bottom of folio 147a17–18. The text breaks off at the bottom of folio 156b and is immediately followed by the final leaves transcribed by the same copyist from the treatise by Isḥāq ibn Sulaymān al-Isrāʾīlī on urine (see item number 7 of this volume).

The copy appears to have been made by the same copyist, and on the same type of paper, as the other items in the volume. The text on folios 147b and 154a is fully vocalized.

There has been some disturbance to the quires at this point in the volume. Folios 146–7 form the outside pair of conjugate leaves from a defective quire; folio 146a is labelled ‘T’, indicating the start of a quire (it is the second quire in a row to be labelled with a ‘T’). Folios 148–53 are six leaves (three pairs of conjugate leaves) from another quire labelled ‘V’ at the bottom of 148a. The lower corner of folio 154a has a label ‘X’ indicating the start of another quire; however, some disturbance must have occurred to this quire since the text on folios 157 and 158 (the centre of the quire) is clearly taken from the conclusion of a different treatise.

There are some marginal corrections. On folio 147a there are two recipes written near the title of the treatise, in the lower left and lower right corners, possibly added by the copyist or by a slightly later reader. There is also another recipe added later in the margin of folio 147a.

References

This is a treatise on diagnosis and prognosis by urine, composed in ten chapters (bābs). Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah referred to the treatise simply as Kitāb fī al-bawl (IAU, ii. 37). It also circulated under variant titles including Kitāb al-Qārūrah, Kitāb Maʿrifat al-bawl wa-aqsāmihi and Kitāb Majmūʿ min aqāwīl al-awāʾil fī maʿrifat al-bawl wa-aqāsmihi wa-dalāʾilihi. The treatise was translated into Hebrew and into Latin in versions that were quite influential. The Bodleian copy is a small fragment only.

The copy is unsigned and undated, but appears to be possibly a seventh/thirteenth-century manuscript. Only the final folio and colophon are preserved in this copy. They form the centre leaves of a quire which has been disturbed, for the preceding three leaves contain a treatise on the same subject, prognosis by urine, attributed to Galen (d. c. AD 216) and transcribed by the same copyist; for the latter, see Entry No. 18.

Dimensions 22.1 × 15.2 (text area 18.6 × 11.3) cm; 23 lines per page. The copy appears to have been made by the same copyist, and on the same type of paper, as the other items in the volume.

There are no marginalia

References

This treatise presents compound remedies grouped by disease or ailment. It is arranged in sixty-two sections, beginning with those recipes useful for treating diseases of the head and ending with remedies for cancer. Al-Rāzī composed two formularies, one usually referred to as the large formulary (al-Aqrābādhīn al-kabīr) and the other as the small formulary (al-Aqrābādhīn al-ṣaghīr), both of which were translated into Latin. A number of Arabic manuscripts are preserved today with an Aqrābādhīn ascribed to al-Rāzī, but no comparison has been made of these manuscripts, which a cursory overview suggests vary greatly in their arrangement and contents. The precise title given in the Bodleian copy, Kitāb al-Aqrābādhīn al-mawsūm bi-al-dustūr, has not been found in the medieval bio-bibliographic literature nor in other catalogues of manuscript collections.

The copy is unsigned and undated, but appears to be a manuscript of the seventh/thirteenth century. It appears to be a complete copy. The treatise opens with a table of contents of its sixty-two sections, with the text itself starting with the compound remedies for ailments of the hair. The order of presentation, however, does not precisely follow that of the table of contents.

Dimensions 22.1 × 15.2 (text area 18.6 × 11.3) cm; 23 lines per page. The title and author are given on the title page (folio 158a5−7) as: كتاب الاقراباذين الموسوم بالدستور تاليف الحكيم الرئيس جالينوس الاسلام محمد بن زكريا الرازى رحمة الله عليه The author is named again at the start of the treatise and at the end.

The copy appears to have been made by the same copyist, and on the same type of paper, as the other items in the volume.

There are numerous marginal annotations, mostly recipes, in several later hands, and there are some interlinear notes. There is a Persian recipe written diagonally near the title on folio 158a.

On folio 158a8-end, beneath the title, the copyist has carefully transcribed a paragraph on ten merits of barley water (فضايل مآ الشعير وهى عشرة) which appears to be unrelated to the treatise.

References

This is a brief, possibly fragmentary, tract presenting therapeutic procedures and drug remedies that, according to the title, al-Rāzī found successful during his youth working in the hospital in Baghdad.

The copy is unsigned and undated, but appears to be possibly from the seventh/thirteenth century. It is unclear whether or not it is a complete copy.

Dimensions 22.1 × 15.2 (text area 18.6 × 11.3) cm; 23 lines per page. The title and author are taken from the first line of text. The copy appears to have been made by the same copyist, and on the same type of paper, as the other items in the volume. This item occupies facing folios that form the centre of a quire.

On the lower part of folio 182a8-20 the copyist transcribed anonymous pharmaceutical extracts. A later hand added a recipe in two lines at the bottom.

Followed, f. 182r line 8-bottom, by an anon. pharmacological extract

**Iskandar Machriq liv., p. 171 ff.; text of MS. printed on pp. 171-73

References

In one of the two abrigded versions [Talkhīṣ] for use in the ʻAḍudī hospital, [Incomplete; lacking most of the 18th and all of the 19th and 20th bābs.]

According to the introduction, this formulary was based upon a number of earlier formularies, abridged by Ibn al-Tilmīdh for use in the ʿAḍudī hospital in Baghdad. This information is provided in the subtitle as mumtazaʿ min ʿiddat al-aqrābādhīnāt talkhīṣ lil-bīmāristān al-ʿaḍūdī. The treatise is comprised of twenty chapters (bābs).

The copy is unsigned and undated, but appears to be a product of the seventh/thirteenth century. The copy may have been made by the same copyist, and on the same type of paper, as the other items in the volume. It is an incomplete copy of the formulary, with the text breaking off abruptly shortly after the start of the eighteenth chapter (bāb) and with recipes missing when compared with other copies.

Dimensions 22.1 × 15.2 (text area 18.6 × 11.3) cm; 23 lines per page. The title is given simply as Aqrābādhīn at the start of the treatise, along with the auhor’s name as Amīn al-Dawlah Abū al-ʿAlāʾ Ṣāʿid ibn Tilmīdh. In the margin, before the word al-Tilmīdh, a slightly later hand has added: Hibat Allāh ibn Ibrāhīm al-maʿrūf bi-.

A later hand has written over the headings with red ink and filled in the circular text-breaks with red ink. A yet different hand has added blue overlinings and headings in blue ink (some gold sprinked). A later hand has made marginal corrections and added some vocalization. A much later hand has made casual subject notations in some of the margins.

f. 227 extraneous notes

References