Avicenna: Canon medicinae [Latin] (Lib. I-V).
Translated by Gerardus Cremonensis. Edited by Petrus Rochabonella. Corrections by Prosdocimus Mutius. De viribus cordis. Translated by Arnoldus de Villa Nova.
Venice: Petrus Maufer de Maliferis et Socii, 1486.
4to. a-h8 i-k6 aa-ii8 kk6 A-Z8 AB8 AA-LL8 MM-NN6 OO4 aA-dD8 eE10 fF8. [500] leaves, the first blank.
ISTC ia01422000; GW 3120; Goff A1422; BMC V 298 (IB. 21308); CIBN A-812; BSB-Ink A-959.
In five parts: I-IV) [undated]; V) 10 June 1486. 'De viribus cordis' is dated 1486.
Two copies held by University of Glasgow.
Copy 1
| GIP number: | A132/1 |
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll Hunterian Bw.3.24 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Variant: | The variant incipits to Books I (a2r) and V (aA1r) as recorded at GW 3120 Anm. |
| Provenance: | Unidentified coats of arms: the illuminated border at the foot of a2r has a partially erased or heavily worn, illegible coat of arms within a laurel wreath supported by two owls; on a5r is a different, unidentified coat of arms (painted over earlier arms): gules, in chief a demi unicorn salient outlined in sable, in base three bars outlined in sable (the shield within a laurel wreath also supported by two owls). Anthony Askew (1722-1774), physician and classical scholar: Askew sale, 13 Feb. 1775 onwards; almost certainly lot 1006 in 'Bibliotheca Askeviana …' (London: Baker & Leigh, 1775) “Avicennae Opera, cum elegant. illuminationibus, Venet. 1486”. William Hunter (1718-1783), physician and anatomist: if the above identification is correct, Hunter purchased the book for £2.6.0 according to a priced copy of the Askew sale catalogue in University of Glasgow Library (Mu36-c.8) - but priced at £0.6.0 in another copy of the sale catalogue in University of Glasgow Library (RB 2804). University of Glasgow: Hunterian bequest 1807; Hunterian Museum bookplate on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “A.8.33”. |
| Binding: | England, 18th-century gold-tooled red goatskin; covers decorated with a border made up of a double fillet and separate tools, including a drawer-handle tool containing a star-shaped flower; restored and rebacked by James Brockman, Aug. 1987, with spine title put back; marbled endpapers; remains of early paper tabs. Size: 236 x 176 mm. Now housed in a burgundy buckram-covered box containing binder’s note, pre-restoration photographs, samples of original spine and headbands. |
| Leaf size: | 227 x 161 mm. |
| Annotations: | Copious marginal annotations (including pharmaceutical formulae) and underlining in a late 15th/early 16th-century hand in black ink, together with some manicules and “nota” marks; a few later annotations in different hands, one in reddish ink, another in black ink; on the front flyleaf in an early hand is a list of medical writers arranged chronologically beginning with Hippocrates. |
| Decoration: | Six full-page illuminations (on a2r, a5r, aa1r, A1r, AA1r, aA1r) each containing an author-portrait in an historiated initial; the illuminated borders include studies of birds, animals, sea creatures, architectural motifs, a centaur holding medicinal herbs and a putto playing a musical instrument; the artist is identified by Professor Lilian Armstrong as the Pico Master (his name derived from a manuscript of Pliny which he illuminated in 1481 for Giovanni Pico della Mirandola) – see Lilian Armstrong, ‘The Pico Master: a Venetian miniaturist of the late Quattrocento’ in her 'Studies of Renaissance miniaturists in Venice', I (London: 2003), p. 325, and Thorp, no. 105; initials and paragraph marks supplied in alternate red and blue throughout. |
| Imperfections: | Wanting fF8 (the Registrum). |
Copy 2
| GIP number: | A132/2 |
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll Ferguson Am-z.44 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Variant: | The variant incipit to Book III (A1r) as recorded at GW 3120 Anm. |
| Note: | fF8 (the Registrum) used as rear pastedown. |
| Provenance: | Albertus Pfisterus (fl. mid 16th century), apothecary of Nuremberg: inscription on front flyleaf: “Sum Stephanj Lagj ex Dono Alberti Pfisterj, pharmacopolae Norembergensis”. Stephanus Lagus/Stephan Haas (fl. mid 16th century), physician of Nuremberg: see above. John Ferguson (1837-1916) Professor of Chemistry, University of Glasgow: acquired 15 May 1875 according to Ferguson’s note in ink on front flyleaf “John Ferguson Univ. Glasg. May 15, 1875”; source unknown. University of Glasgow: Ferguson collection purchase, 1921. |
| Binding: | Germany, 16th-century blind-tooled quarter calf over wooden boards (grooved fore-edges); on the covers intersecting fillets form a panel of four triangular compartments with a rectangular compartment above and below the panel; the compartments are decorated with a foliate/floral stamp, a stamp of a five-petalled flower head and with two lozenge-shaped stamps, one containing a double-headed eagle, the other a floral motif; spine decorated with a large rosette stamp; small patches of blue paper adhering to the leather; one brass and leather clasp, the brass chased with a six-petalled flower; catch plate on front board with similar chasing; front pastedown is upper half of an incunable leaf extracted from a folio Bible (Job, cap. 38 with surrounding gloss); the final leaf (fF8) has been used as a pastedown on the rear board; numerous parchment index tabs labelled in Latin in an early hand. Size: 234 x 173 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 220 x 165 mm. |
| Annotations: | Occasional marginal notes in 16th and 17th-century hands; entire missing text of quire AB (see Imperfections) is supplied in manuscript in a 16th-century hand; inserted after fF7 is a leaf recording mainly in Latin (but occasionally in German) the deaths of members of the Pfister family between 1533 and 1538 (the text scored through and partially obliterated in ink). |
| Decoration: | Thirteen-line initial “I” supplied in red, green and reserved white on a2r, ten-line initial “E” supplied in red, green and blue on aa1r, eight-line initial “I” supplied in red, green and reserved white on A1r, eleven-line initial “F” supplied in red, green and reserved white on AA1r; between a1r and aa1r other initials and paragraph marks supplied in red or blue or occasionally green, and capital strokes supplied in red; thereafter the book is undecorated except for initials, paragraph marks and capital strokes supplied in red on A1r, AA1r, NN6v and OO1r. |
| Imperfections: | Wanting the blank leaf a1 and quire AB. |
