Leaf from a Medical manuscript written c 1388 AD in bold Syriac/ Eastern Aramaic on both sides of the leaf - in red and black ink on native paper.
Size: 7.5 x 5.25 inches
A very rare example of a medically- related manuscript from the 1300’s. This leaf came from a parent manuscript written in the Middle East , more than 600 years ago .The text of the manuscript is from Galen’s “On Simple Drugs” medical herbal.
Galen (Claudius Galenus, 129-216 AD), was a Greek physician, writer, and philosopher who exercised a dominant influence on medical theory and practice in Europe from the Middle Ages until the mid-17th century. Galen was the first physician to use the pulse as a sign of illness. He improved the science and use of drugs in therapeutics. Representative study areas included embryology, neurology, myology, respiration, reproductive medicine, and urology.
Galen’s treatise “On Simple Drugs” holds a special place in the history of pharmacology as the first major work on the topic after Dioscorides’ De materia medica. Sergius of Reshaina (d. 536) translated the Galen’s works into Syriac in the 6th century, which became a bridge for moving the medical expertise of the ancient Greeks to Islamic societies, since Syriac texts were much easier to translate into Arabic than Greek. Islamic medicine took pharmacology to the next level, systematizing and enriching Galen’s ideas.
Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic that became a major language throughout the Middle East from the 4th to the 8th century. The Syriac language remains the liturgical language of Syriac Christianity.
Shipped unmatted
