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Catalogue: Medical Poetry

[An Album of Two Poems and Poetic Fragments]

In the second NLM collection of medical poetry (MS A 85), probably compiled in the 19th century, there are two anonymous poems on medical subjects and three fragments of poems.

[A Poem on Foodstuffs] (MS A 85, item 2): anonymous

In this anonymous untitled Arabic poem on foodstuffs in medicine, the material is presented in alphabetical order. Space was left blank where a title and author would have been expected. The poem occurs between a rare copy of a poem on medicine by the Spanish vizier and historian Ibn al-Khaṭīb (d. 1374/776) and a unique copy of a poem on detecting signs of healthfulness in readily-available foodstuffs by the 13th-century astronomer of Egypt and North Africa, al-Marrākushī.

Physical Description

Arabic. 22 leaves (fols. 29b-51b) Dimensions 30.4 x 19.3 (text area 22.5 x 13.2) cm; 31 lines per page. No author or title is given, though space was left for their inclusion.

The copy is undated and unsigned. The appearance of the paper, script, and ink suggests a date of the early 19th century.

Apparently a complete copy of the poem. The entire volume is written in a very fine North African (Maghribi) script, by the same unnamed copyist. The text area has been frame-ruled. Black ink with headings and marginal headings in red and blue-green. The text is written within frames of red and green lines. There are catchwords. Some folios are numbered in penciled Western numerals (some incorrect); the volume has been recently refoliated.

There are some marginalia and some marginal subject headings.

[A Poem on Fruits] (MS A 85, item 4): anonymous

This anonymous and untitled poem on fruits occurs in a collection of medical poetry that includes a rare copy of a poem on medicine by the Spanish vizier and historian Ibn al-Khaṭīb (d. 1374/776) and a unique copy of a poem on detecting signs of healthfulness in readily-available foodstuffs by the 13th-century astronomer of Egypt and North Africa, al-Marrākushī.

Physical Description

Arabic. 6 leaves (fols. 73b-78b) Dimensions 30.4 x 19.3 (text area 22.5 x 13.2) cm; 31 lines per page. No author or title is given.

The copy is undated and unsigned. The appearance of the paper, script, and ink suggests a date of the early 19th century.

There are some marginalia.

[Three Fragments of Medical Poems] (MS A 85, item 5): anonymous

Three fragments or very short poems are written on the recto of one manuscript leaf, with a recipe written on the verso. No authors or titles are given.

Physical Description

Arabic. 1 leaf (fol. 79) Dimensions 30.4 x 19.3 (text area 22.5 x 13.2) cm; 31 lines per page. No authors or titles given.

The copy is undated and unsigned. The appearance of the paper, script, and ink suggests a date of the early 19th century.

Fragments of three poems, together with a recipe. The entire volume is written in a very fine North African (Maghribi) script, by the same unnamed copyist. The text area has been frame-ruled. Black ink with headings and marginal headings in red and blue-green. The text is written within frames of red and green lines. There are catchwords. Some folios are numbered in penciled Western numerals (some incorrect); the volume has been recently refoliated.

These two poems and three fragments are found in one album of medical poetry. They were all copied by the same copyist.

The light-beige paper has a nearly matte finish, with neither laid lines nor chain lines visible.

The volume consists of 79 leaves; fols. 28b, 29a, 52a, and 73a are blank. The first item (fols. 1a-28a) in the volume is the important poem by Ibn al-Khaṭīb (MS A 85, item 1). The second item in the volume (fols. 29b-51b) is the anonymous poem of foodstuffs as medicine, here catalogued; the third item (fols. 52b-72b) is a unique copy of a medical poem by the well-known 13th-century astronomer al-Marrākushī (MS A 85, item 3). The fourth item (fols. 73b-78b) is the anonymous poem on fruits here catalogued, and the final item (fol. 79a) contains the three miscellaneous medical poems described above. On fol. 79b there is a recipe written by the same copyist as executed the entire manuscript.

Binding

The volume is bound in an Islamic binding. The covers and envelope flap are pasteboards covered with maroon leather. The front and back covers and envelope flap have blind, block-stamped medallions and blind tooled frames. The doublure of the envelope flap is paper printed with brown, yellow and black inked designs. There are modern blank paper pastedowns and endpapers.

Provenance

The volume was purchased in 1941 by the Army Medical Library presumably from A. S. Yahuda; no further information in available on its provenance.

References

Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS., entry A85, p. 326.

NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-129 no. 2