Catalogue: Medical Monographs

Anatomy and Physiology

NLM also has a number of anonymous anatomical treatises or groups of anatomical drawings. On the last folio of one copy of a commentary by al-Kazaruni (d. 1357/735) on Ibn al-Nafīs's popular epitome of Avicenna's Canon of Medicine called the Mūjiz, MS A 61, a later hand has started copying the opening of an anonymous Persian treatise on anatomy. Only the start of the unidentified treatise is preserved; for details see the full catalogue entry for (MS A 61).

The remaining anonymous anatomical items in the NLM collections will be catalogued in the following sections. They include a bloodletting figure and a venous figure, probably drawn in the 18th century but based on earlier models (MS P 5 fol. A); six early-modern anatomical drawings showing some European and Indian influences (MS P 20, item 2), and two anonymous Arabic anatomical and physiological treatises, MS A 76 and MS A 21, the latter concerned especially with the function of speech.

[Two Anatomical Drawings: a bloodletting figure and a venous figure]   (MS P 5, fol. A)

Anonymous

Two anatomical drawings occur on one side of a loose sheet of paper discovered inside a copy made in 1681/1092 of the Persian-language medical enyclopedia Zakhīrah-i Khvārazm’Shāhī written by Jurjānī (MS P 5). The anatomical figures, however, are on very different paper from that of the main volume and appear to have been drawn sometime in the 18th century. The loose sheet has been designated "MS P 5 fol. A" and is now placed in a separate folder. The two figures are drawn on the same side of the piece of paper. A fold at the midpoint separates the two figures.

The righthand figure shows the venous system, with the internal organs coloured with opaque watercolours and some of the veins labeled. It is clearly derivative from the venous figures usually associated with the Tashrīḥ-i Manṣūri of Ibn Ilyās, examples of which can be seen in NLM (MS P 18) fol. 25b and (MS P 19) fol. 16b.

The lefthand figure has the bloodletting points labeled in a mixture of Persian and Arabic. This figure is clearly derivative from similar illustrations in late-medieval European manuscripts. Late-medieval European manuscripts also often had a related figure on which the points useful for treatment by cauterization were indicated, and such cautery figures are occasionally found with Persian/Arabic labels in Islamic manuscripts of about the 17th century or later. Only the bloodletting figure, however, is preserved in the NLM collections.

[Two Anatomical Drawings: a bloodletting figure and a venous figure]   (MS P 5 fol. A)

Illustrations

Lefthand Side

A loose sheet with a bloodletting figure having points labeled that were thought best for phlebotomy. Such figures are derivative from late-medieval European bloodletting figures. Undated, probably 18th century.

Righthand Side

A loose sheet with a figure, drawn frontally, showing the venous system. The figure is closely related to those usually associated with the Tashrīḥ-i Manṣūri treatise on human anatomy by Ibn Ilyās, who worked in Shiraz in Iran at the end of the 14th century. Undated, probably 18th century.

Physical Description

Persian. 1 loose leaf measuring 21 x 35 cm. The sheet has one major fold at the midpoint, though it was at one time folded many times to make it quite small. One side of the sheet is blank, while the other has two full-sized human figures. No source, author, or title for these figures is given.

It is undated and unsigned. The appearance of the paper, script, and ink suggests a date of the 18th century.

The righthand figure shows the venous system, and the lefthand figure has the bloodletting points, labeled in a mixture of Persian and Arabic.

The paper has vertical, rather wavy, laid lines and single chain lines, but no watermarks. The edges have been trimmed from their original size. The paper is heavily soiled, and the corners have been repaired and the center fold reinforced.

Binding

It is a loose sheet with no binding.

Provenance

The loose leaf (bearing a penciled numeral 204A) was found between fols. 36 and 37 of (MS P 5), a copy made in 1681/1092 of the Persian-language medical enyclopedia Zakhīrah-i Khvārazm’Shāhī (MS P 5) written by Jurjānī. It is made of paper visibly different from the main volume, and has now been placed in a separate folder and labeled "MS P 5 fol. A".

Two additional loose leaves were also found between fols. 212 and 213 of the same volume. They are both on modern paper and contain Persian notes apparently unrelated to the rest of the manuscript. They have been placed in a separate folder and labeled: "MS P 5 fols. B and C". One (fol. B) contains several dates in the years 1308 and 1309 H [1890-1892].

MS P 5 was in the collection of the Army Medical Library in 1946.

No further information is available on its provenance.

References

Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS., entry P 5, p. 331, where it is described as being found between fols. 246 and 247 of MS P 5.

NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-131 no. 3.

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Tashrīḥ al-abdān   (MS A 76)

(The Anatomy of Bodies)

تشريح الابدان

Anonymous

In the collections at NLM is a unique copy of an anonymous Arabic treatise on human anatomy. The treatise itself has no title; a modern owner's label on the inside front cover provides the general descriptive title given here. It is organized in a large number of unnumbered chapters (fasls) covering the bones (fols. 1b-13a), the muscles (fols. 13a-37a), the nerves (fols. 37a-42b), the arteries and veins (fols. 42b-54a), and the compound organs and embryo (fols. 54a-70a). Galen appears to be the only authority cited (fols. 3b, 56a, 61a, etc).

No other copy is recorded.

The treatise has not been published or translated.

Tashrīḥ al-abdān   (MS A 76)

Illustrations

The opening of an anonymous Arabic treatise on human anatomy. The copy is undated, probably early 18th century. No other copy is recorded.

Physical Description

Arabic. 70 leaves (fols. 1b-70a). Dimensions 16.2 x 10.0 (text area 11.7 x 4.9) cm; 12-13 lines per page. No author's name is given. The treatise itself has no title; a modern owner's label on the inside front cover provides the general descriptive title Tashrīḥ al-abdān (The Anatomy of Bodies).

The copy is undated and unsigned. The appearance of the paper, script, and ink suggests a date of the early 18th century.

Apparently a complete copy. The text is written in a small naskh script in black ink with headings in red and red overlinings. The end of the treatise (fol. 70a) is written by the same unnamed scribe, but in smaller script and diagonally on the page. There are catchwords.

There are marginalia, some emending the text. There are no illustrations.

The thin, burnished paper has very fine laid lines, single chain lines, and is watermarked. The paper is water damaged near the top.

The volume consists of 70 leaves; fols. 1a and 70b are blank.

Binding

The volume is bound in brown leather with tooled borders on the front and back covers. The spine is a modern replacement. There are modern pastedowns and endpapers.

Provenance

There is an undated owner's stamp on fol. 1b.

MS A 76 was in the collection of the Army Medical Library in 1946. No further information is available on its provenance.

References

Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS., entry A 76, p. 322.

Hamarneh, "NLM", p. 82.

NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-126 no. 9.

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‘Ilm al-ṭābī‘īyāt al-insānīyah   (MS A 21)

(The Science of Human Constitutions)

علم الطبيعيات الانسانية

Anonymous

An anonymous Arabic treatise titled ‘Ilm al-ṭābī‘īyāt al-insānīyah (The Science of Human Constitutions) concerns human physiology. In the portion preserved, it discusses the function and movement of the head and other parts of the body, focusing especially on the function of speech.

The copy at NLM is incomplete, for the colophon states that the volume contains only the first part (juz') of the treatise. A penciled note added to the NLM copy states that it is "the first part of a commentary on constitutions". The treatise does not, however, appear to be a commentary.

No other copy is recorded. The title is not recorded in the bibliographical sources or published manuscript catalogues.

The treatise has not been published or translated.

‘Ilm al-ṭābī‘īyāt al-insānīyah   (MS A 21)

Illustrations

A sample page fron an anonymous Arabic treatise on human physiology titled ‘Ilm al-ṭābī‘īyāt al-insānīyah (The Science of Human Constitutions). Undated copy, probably 19th century.

Physical Description

Arabic. 71 leaves (fols. 1b-71a). Dimensions 21.9 x 16.5 (text area 18.0 x 10.5) cm; 21 lines per page. The author is not named. The title is taken from the colophon (fol. 71a lines 12-13), which states that this volume is only the first part (juz') of the treatise. The preliminary leaf forms a recent title page on which is written: qit‘ah min kitāb fī al-ṭibb (fragment of a book on medicine). Also on the preliminary leaf a penciled note reads: al-juz' al-awal min sharh ‘llm al-tabi‘iyat (the first part of a commentary on constitutions).

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

An incomplete copy. Only the first volume or part (juz') of the treatise, according to the colophon, is preserved in this manuscript. The text is written in a medium-small naskh script. Black ink with headings in red; there are also red marginal headings. There are catchwords.

There are some marginalia emending the text.

The thin, burnished paper has laid lines and single chain lines. The edges of the folios have been trimmed from their original size.

The volume consists of 72 leaves and one preliminary leaf; fols. 1a, 71b, and 72 are blank.

Binding

The volume is bound in a red leather modern library bindng with envelope flap. There are modern pastedowns and endpapers.

Provenance

The volume was purchased by the Army Medical Library in 1941 from A.S. Yahuda (ELS no. 1675).

References

Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS., entry A 21, p. 304.

NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-116 no. 3.

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[Six Early-Modern Anatomical Illustrations]   (MS P 20, item 2)

Anonymous

Six anatomical drawings occur at the end of a volume containing Ṭibb al-Akbar (Akbar's Medicine) by Muḥammad Akbar, known as Muḥammad Arzānī (d. 1722/ 1134) in an undated copy probably made in the 18th century. The paper on which these figures are drawn, however, is distinct from that of the main text, though similar in many respects. The illustrations appear to be unrelated to the accompanying text and to draw upon Indian and early-modern sources.

One full-opening of the manuscript, fols. 554b-555a, contains two full-figure anatomical illustrations, one of a female and one of a male. The female figure is of a pregnant woman. The woman holds back a flap of abdominal skin to expose the gravid uterus, while in her other hand she appears to hold a plant rather than a part of the body, though that could be interpreted as referring to the female genitalia. Surrounding the figure are portrayals of individual organs: at the top, two hearts; lower right, the lungs; something unidentifed in lower left (labelled the opening of the vagina).

The male figure has his abdomen and chest opened to reveal the internal organs. His right hand holds a second set of genitalia, and there is a sketch of the liver and gallbladder in the upper left corner. The artistic conventions employed in the production of these two illustrations clearly indicates Western India as a place of production. The 16th to 18th-century European convention of picturing partially-dissected bodies as if they were alive, often with the obliging cadaver holding up parts of their own body for further inspection, can be seen here transferred to the Indian subcontinent. The anatomy of the exposed organs reflects indigenous Indian concepts as well as some medieval Galenic anatomy.

A second full-opening of the manuscript, fols. 556b-557a, contains drawings of individual organs drawn in inks and opaque watercolours. On the righthand page are the liver with gallbladder, the stomach with intestines, the testicles, and a detail of the stomach. On the left are a composite rendering of the tongue, larynx, heart, trachea, stomach, and liver; a composite drawing of the ureters, urethra, kidneys, testicles, and penis; the external female genitalia; and a composite rendering of the internal female genitalia with a gravid uterus. These leaves of individual organs show considerable influence from early-modern European anatomical atlases, while the explicitness of many of the details reflects Indian artistic conventions not found elsewhere in the Islamic world.

A third full-opening of the manuscript (fols. 558b-559a) has two drawings in ink and light-gray wash of skeletons, one leaning on a pedestal and the other leaning on a scythe. These two figures are clearly derivative from Vesalian illustrations. By the 17th century it appears that Vesalius's Latin treatise The Fabric of the Human Body (De humani corporis fabrica), printed in 1542-3, was known -- either directly or indirectly through subsequent treatises based upon the Fabrica -- in the Samanid and Ottoman empires. Several libraries have in their collections sketches made in the 17th through 19th centuries that indicate familarity with illustrations that derive from the Fabrica of Vesalius. For example, the British Library has a short Persian anatomical treatise dated 1696-1697 (1108 H) with an excellent ink rendering of the first full muscular figure in the Fabrica (OCIS, MS Or. 5862, fols. 1b-7b), and Yale University has six folios of ink sketches of individual organs based on diagrams in the Fabrica (Yale University Medical School, Cushing MS Or. 13, fols. 1a-6b).

For further discussion of early-modern Europen influences on Islamic anatomical knowledge and illustration, see F. Maddison and E. Savage-Smith, Science, Tools, and Magic [Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, 12] (Oxford: Oxford University Press and London: Azimuth Editions, 1996), Vol. 1, pp. 14-24.

[Six Early-Modern Anatomical Illustrations]   (MS P 20, item 2)

Illustrations

Illustrations, in ink and opaque watercolors, of a pregnant woman with abdomen and chest opened to reveal the internal organs and fetus. Surrounding the figure are drawings of [at the top] two hearts, [lower right] the lungs, and something unidentifed in the lower left (labeled the opening of the vagina). Undated and unsigned, probably 18th century, India.

Illustrations, in ink and opaque watercolors, of a male figure with his abdomen and chest opened to reveal the internal organs. His right hand holds a second set of genitalia, and a horn is in his other hand, with a sketch of the liver and gallbladder in the upper left corner. Undated and unsigned, probably 18th century, India.

Drawings of individual organs in inks and opaque watercolors. Illustated are [in upper left] the liver with gallbladder, [in the center] the stomach with intestines, [lower left] the testicles, [lower right] a detail of the stomach, and something unidentified in upper right corner. Undated and unsigned, probably 18th century, India.

Drawings of individual organs, in inks and opaque watercolors. Illustrated are [at top] a composite rendering of the tongue, larynx, heart, trachea, stomach, and liver; [left] a composite drawing of the ureters, urethra, kidneys, testicles, and penis; [right] the external female genitalia; and [at bottom] a composite rendering of the internal female genitalia with a gravid uterus. Undated and unsigned, probably 18th century, India.

A drawing in ink and light-gray wash of a skeleton leaning on a pedestal. One of six leaves of anatomical drawings appended to a Persian translation of an Arabic medical compendium. The figure shows some knowledge of the illustrations of Vesalius's Fabrica (possibly available through intermediate interpretations). Undated and unsigned, probably 18th-century, India.

A drawing in ink and light-gray wash of a skeleton leaning on a scythe. One of six leaves of anatomical drawings appended to a Persian translation of an Arabic medical compendium. The figure shows some knowledge of the illustrations of Vesalius's Fabrica (possibly available through intermediate interpretations). Undated and unsigned, probably 18th-century, India.

Physical Description

Persian. 6 leaves (fols. 554b-559a). Dimensions 22.0 X 12.7 cm. No source, title, or author is given for these illustations.

The copy is undated and unsigned. The appearance of the paper, script, inks, watercolors, and artistic conventions suggests a date of the 18th century and India as a place of production.

The paper is similar to that of the main text in the volume (thin, glossy, biscuit paper with only indistinct wavy laid lines visible), but the laid lines are even less distinct. The paper is wormeaten and waterdamaged at the top. The edges have been trimmed from their original size. The first 50 leaves have been numbered in pencil in Western numerals, paginated from left to right with numerals 511-560. The volume has been recently refoliated correctly.

The volume consists of 559 leaves and one unnumbered preliminary leaf. Fols. 554a, 555b, 556a, 557b, 558a, and 559b are blank. Fols. 1b-553b contain the Ṭibb al-Akbar of Muḥammad Arzānī (MS P 20, item 1). Fol. 1a is blank except for a later note on compound remedies (mujarrabat). The preliminary folio [1a-1b] has a table of contents for three chapters (babs) from a different treatise (on diseases of the head, eyes,and ears), added later.

Binding

The volume is bound in a modern European library binding of pasteboards covered with dark-red leather. There are modern pastedowns and endpapers.

Provenance

The volume was purchased in 1940 by the Army Medical Library from the New York dealer Maggs. See, Maggs Bros. Ltd [sale catalogue], Manuscripts of Asia, Africa and Europe in thirty different languages, Catalogue 687, Spring 1940 (London, 1940), p. 31, Lot 137.

References

Maggs Bros. Ltd [sale catalogue], Manuscripts of Asia, Africa and Europe in thirty different languages, Catalogue 687, Spring 1940 (London, 1940), p. 31, Lot 137.

Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS., p. 336, entry P 20.

NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-135 no. 3

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