This manuscript contains a very early copy of a Latin translation of the Liber Almansoris (Kitāb al-Manṣūrī) (The Book of Medicine dedicated to Manṣūr) by Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā Rāzī (sometimes written as al-Razi, Rases or Rhazes). Rāzī was a doctor, alchemist, and philosopher who was born in the late 9th century in the city of Ray, part of modern-day Tehran. After studying and practicing medicine in Baghdad, Rāzī was invited back to Ray to be the director of its hospital by Prince Mansur ibn Ishaq, the city's governor. Rāzī dedicated two of his books to Prince Mansur ibn Ishaq, the Kitab al-Tibb ar-Ruhani (The Book of Spiritual Medicine) and the Kitāb al-Manṣūrī or Liber Almansoris, i.e., The Book of Medicine dedicated to Manṣūr. The latter was one of Rāzī's earlier works, and it is essentially a medical textbook for students studying medicine: it is divided into ten books on topics such as diagnostics, physiognomy and surgery. The ninth book often circulated independently as the Liber Nonus.
Rāzī's Kitāb al-Manṣūrī was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona (d. 1187), probably c. 1180. The demand for access to Arabic medical texts in the medieval west is attested by the activities of translators such as Gerard of Cremona and Constantinus Africanus, who between them produced Latin versions of works by Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ishaq Ibn Suleiman (Isaac Iudaeus), Hunayn ibn Ishaq al-'Ibadi (Iohannitus), Ibn Wafid (Albenguefit), al-Farghani (Alfraganus), al-Haytham (Alhazen) and others. The Liber Almansoris remained a popular medical text into the early modern period: for example, the Dutch physician and anatomist Andreas Vesalius wrote his doctoral thesis on the ninth book.
There are many uncertainties about the origin of Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 9213 due to its apparent age and its textual content. The production of Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 9213 has been dated to the late 12th or early 13th centuries, i.e., not long after the death of Gerard of Cremona in 1187. The origin of this manuscript is not known, nor is it known if the manuscript was made for a particular individual or for use in a religious house. The manuscript may have been made in England, although Michael Gullick has proposed a French origin for the volume (personal communication to Jayne Ringrose, recorded in the departmental running files at Cambridge University Library).
The particular translation of the Liber Almansoris in MS Add. 9213 is itself of interest for the study of the reception of Arabic scientific texts in north-western Europe. According to Danielle Jacquart, the style of the translation found in this manuscript differs from that in other works translated by Gerard. This not only prompts doubts about the authenticity of the attribution in this instance, but raises the possibility that the manuscript may have been made at an even earlier date. This is significant in the context of other surviving copies of this work made in western Europe. According to one description of this manuscript (Sotheby's Sale Catalogue for 6 December 1993), manuscripts of the complete corpus of ten books of the Liber Almansoris are rare, with only a single other manuscript of English origin known (Worcester Cathedral, MS Q.60), which dates to the early thirteenth century. Only one copy of the complete corpus of ten books was recorded in the early fourteenth-century Registrum Anglie at St Albans (described in CBMLC 2, R.96), but the Sotheby's Sale Catalogue description states that that entry in the Registrum Anglie does not correspond with Worcester Cathedral, MS Q.60. Lynn Thorndike and Pearl Kibre in their survey of scientific manuscript recorded around a dozen manuscripts of the complete corpus of ten books of the Liber Almansoris of mainland-European origin, and none earlier than the thirteenth century.
The earliest, though incomplete, evidence of the manuscript's provenance does not resolve any of the questions surrounding this manuscript's origin, but it does describe something of the manuscript's later-medieval receiption. The provenance-indication is found on f. iv verso, one of the endleavesat the front of the manuscript. An inscription in a fourteenth-century hand at the top of the page reads 'Liber colegii de [...]', pointing to the possession of the manuscript by a college at one of the universities. The removal of the following word makes a conclusive identification impossible, however it may be that the manuscript belonged to Clare College (then known as Clare Hall): a 'Librum Rasis in Almasorio' is recorded alongside three other books in the 'Master's Old Book' (now Clare College Archives, C, 1/7, p. 17) as having been given to the college by William de Acton/Aketon (d. by Feb. 1391). In addition, Linda Voigts has noted that the mnemonic verse in the margin of f. 188r, in a section of the text dealing with uroscopy, may be by the hand of Roger Marchall (fl. 1436-1477), doctor of medicine, and physician to King Edward IV whose handwriting appears in a number of medical manuscripts now in the possession of various Cambridge Colleges, but that there is no other evidence of his participation in this manuscript.
Thirteen manuscripts owned or used by Roger Marchall (and another with possible Marchall connections) are being digitised, catalogued and conserved as part of the Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries project:
Dr Sarah Gilbert
Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries Project Cataloguer
Cambridge University Library
and
Dr James Freeman
Medieval Manuscripts Specialist
Cambridge University Library
References:
28 quires of mostly 8 leaves. The medieval front endleaves associated with ff. 1-230 are present in the manuscript as ff. i and iv, now mutilated, but with a medieval ownership inscription and medical recipe texts in contemporary hands on f. iv recto and iv verso. Interleaved with the opening bifolium is a paper bifolium (ff. ii-iii) that was probably added when the present binding was applied to the volume. At the close of the manuscript there is another paper bifolium (ff. v-vi) with a watermark that matches the watermark on ff. ii-iii, and also a parchment stub (f. vii) datable to c. 1590-1592. The quires are arranged as follows:
Quire signatures in pencil in Hindu-Arabic numerals in the lower outer corner of the first recto of each quire.
17th century (?second half) binding, 'probably bound for Sir Lionel Tollemache, 1648-1726, third Earl of Dysart' (Sotheby's Sale Catalogue for 6 December 1993, Lot 52). Full bound in sprinkled calf over millboard with matching decoration to left and right covers. Covers are decorated with a blind double fillet frame with Oxford corners inset from the perimeter of the board by c. 10mm. The cover material over the head, fore, and tail edges of the boards is decorated with a thick single fillet tooled in gold. Five raised bands on spine, each decorated with a blind double fillet through their centre (i.e., across the width of the spine). Spine compartments are decorated with a blind single fillet along their upper and lower perimeters. Head and tail bands are a beige fibre wrapped around a core of what appears to be straw or reed; head band is exposed as the upper opening of the spine has been torn away down to the first raised band. Two paper labels fixed to spine with an adhesive:
No pastedowns; turn ins and inner faces of boards are exposed. The number '15' circled and struck through on the inner face of the left board.
Head, fore, and tail edges of the bookblock are stained red.
Paper bifolia forming two endleaves at each end of the bookblock (ff. ii-iii and ff. v-vi). Each paper bifolium has a watermark at the centrefold of a crown over a scroll-eared escutchon with two bendlets. This watermark is a close visual match for a watermark found in Oxford, Christ Church College, MS Mus. 1018-1020, a collection of partbooks of music composed by Thomas Talbot, probably copied in the 1630s. The watermark is printed in Ashbee, Thompson, and Wainwright (eds.), The Viola Da Gamba Society Index of Manuscripts Containing Consort Music, 2 vols (2014), II.302.
Parchment endleaves at the opening of the volume (ff. i and iv) are contemporary with the main text and have probably always travelled with the main quire stack as the opening endleaves.
A parchment stub at the end of the volume (f. vii) of a document dated to the 33rd and 34th regnal years of Queen Elizabeth I (c. November 1590 - November 1592).
A brief summary of the manuscript, handwritten in ink with additions in an additional hand in pencil, on a paper leaf 203x127 mm. The leaf bears the pressmark L.J.IV.2 with the '2' struck out. The appearance of the leaf, and the presence of the pressmark indicates that the leaf was created before 1955 and during the period where the manuscript belonged to the Tollemache family of Helmingham Hall.
A typewritten letter on a paper leaf c. 177x135 mm dated 4 February 1961 from Neil Ker to Philip Robinson, enquiring about the location of four manuscripts formerly owned by Sir Thomas Phillips, as well as the location of two others he had previously seen at Helmingham Hall but which had since been sold to Robinson.
Both items are loose leaves kept with the manuscript.
Late 20th-/Early 21st-century foliation:
i + ii-iii + iv + 1-230 + v-vi | vii
Foliated in pencil in the upper outer corner of each recto by Jayne Ringrose.Possibly owned by Clare College, Cambridge (then known as Clare Hall): an ownership inscription by a hand of the fourteenth century on f. iv verso reads: 'Liber colegii de [...]'. The removal of the following word makes a conclusive identification impossible, however this may be one of the four books donated to Clare Hall by William de Acton/Aketon (d. by Feb. 1391) (the others were copies of John of Gaddesden, Rosa medicinae, Avicenna, Canon medicinae, tr. Gerard of Cremona, and Bartholomeus Anglicus, De proprietatibus rerum).
Owned by the Tollemache family of Helmingham Hall, Helmingham, Suffolk, England: Helmingham MS 15, pressmark L.J.IV (paper label, inside of the left board). A loose leaf of paper kept with the manuscript bears a brief description written in ink in a ?20th century hand, with the pressmark reference L.J.IV.2 (with the '2' struck out).
It is not known when the Tollemache family acquired MS Add. 9213; according to Edwards and Griffiths the Tollemache family seems to have began assembling a private library by the mid-16th century, and subsequent generations continued to acquire manuscripts and rare books. The 1993 Sotheby catalogue description suggests that the the manuscript was 'probably bound for Sir Lionel Tollemache, 1648-1726(!), third earl of Dysart', which would place the family's acquisition of the volume before 1727.
Probably the manuscript described as 'Liber Medicines Abubecri' in the 1762 Catalogue of the Library at Helmingham Hall in Suffolk (Suffolk Record Office, Ipswich HD 1538/253/167, printed in Edwards and Griffiths, pp. 362-364). Edwards and Griffiths tentatively suggested that the 'Liber Medicines Abubecri' might be their 'MS 64', now Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania, Library, Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection, MS 24, a copy of the medical works of Isaac Israeli ben Solomon, but since the opening words of MS Add. 9213 are 'Abubecri arazi filij zacarie liber incipit' (1r) it seems much more likely that that the 'Liber Medicines Abubecri' entry in the in the 1762 Catalogue refers to CUL MS Add. 9213.
Owned by Philip Robinson (1902-1991), antiquarian bookseller (with his brother Lionel Robinson (1897-1983)): see correspondence from N.R. Ker, kept with the manuscript.
Purchased by Cambridge University Library as Lot 52 from a sale of Robinson Trust items at Sotheby's on 6 December 1993.
This catalogue record draws on an unpublished description of the manuscript by Jayne Ringrose, used here by kind permission of the author.
Under the 'More' menu you can find metadata about the item, and information about sharing this image.
28 quires of mostly 8 leaves. The medieval front endleaves associated with ff. 1-230 are present in the manuscript as ff. i and iv, now mutilated, but with a medieval ownership inscription and medical recipe texts in contemporary hands on f. iv recto and iv verso. Interleaved with the opening bifolium is a paper bifolium (ff. ii-iii) that was probably added when the present binding was applied to the volume. At the close of the manuscript there is another paper bifolium (ff. v-vi) with a watermark that matches the watermark on ff. ii-iii, and also a parchment stub (f. vii) datable to c. 1590-1592. The quires are arranged as follows:
Quire signatures in pencil in Hindu-Arabic numerals in the lower outer corner of the first recto of each quire.
17th century (?second half) binding, 'probably bound for Sir Lionel Tollemache, 1648-1726, third Earl of Dysart' (Sotheby's Sale Catalogue for 6 December 1993, Lot 52). Full bound in sprinkled calf over millboard with matching decoration to left and right covers. Covers are decorated with a blind double fillet frame with Oxford corners inset from the perimeter of the board by c. 10mm. The cover material over the head, fore, and tail edges of the boards is decorated with a thick single fillet tooled in gold. Five raised bands on spine, each decorated with a blind double fillet through their centre (i.e., across the width of the spine). Spine compartments are decorated with a blind single fillet along their upper and lower perimeters. Head and tail bands are a beige fibre wrapped around a core of what appears to be straw or reed; head band is exposed as the upper opening of the spine has been torn away down to the first raised band. Two paper labels fixed to spine with an adhesive:
No pastedowns; turn ins and inner faces of boards are exposed. The number '15' circled and struck through on the inner face of the left board.
Head, fore, and tail edges of the bookblock are stained red.
Paper bifolia forming two endleaves at each end of the bookblock (ff. ii-iii and ff. v-vi). Each paper bifolium has a watermark at the centrefold of a crown over a scroll-eared escutchon with two bendlets. This watermark is a close visual match for a watermark found in Oxford, Christ Church College, MS Mus. 1018-1020, a collection of partbooks of music composed by Thomas Talbot, probably copied in the 1630s. The watermark is printed in Ashbee, Thompson, and Wainwright (eds.), The Viola Da Gamba Society Index of Manuscripts Containing Consort Music, 2 vols (2014), II.302.
Parchment endleaves at the opening of the volume (ff. i and iv) are contemporary with the main text and have probably always travelled with the main quire stack as the opening endleaves.
A parchment stub at the end of the volume (f. vii) of a document dated to the 33rd and 34th regnal years of Queen Elizabeth I (c. November 1590 - November 1592).
A brief summary of the manuscript, handwritten in ink with additions in an additional hand in pencil, on a paper leaf 203x127 mm. The leaf bears the pressmark L.J.IV.2 with the '2' struck out. The appearance of the leaf, and the presence of the pressmark indicates that the leaf was created before 1955 and during the period where the manuscript belonged to the Tollemache family of Helmingham Hall.
A typewritten letter on a paper leaf c. 177x135 mm dated 4 February 1961 from Neil Ker to Philip Robinson, enquiring about the location of four manuscripts formerly owned by Sir Thomas Phillips, as well as the location of two others he had previously seen at Helmingham Hall but which had since been sold to Robinson.
Both items are loose leaves kept with the manuscript.
Late 20th-/Early 21st-century foliation:
i + ii-iii + iv + 1-230 + v-vi | vii
Foliated in pencil in the upper outer corner of each recto by Jayne Ringrose.Possibly owned by Clare College, Cambridge (then known as Clare Hall): an ownership inscription by a hand of the fourteenth century on f. iv verso reads: 'Liber colegii de [...]'. The removal of the following word makes a conclusive identification impossible, however this may be one of the four books donated to Clare Hall by William de Acton/Aketon (d. by Feb. 1391) (the others were copies of John of Gaddesden, Rosa medicinae, Avicenna, Canon medicinae, tr. Gerard of Cremona, and Bartholomeus Anglicus, De proprietatibus rerum).
Owned by the Tollemache family of Helmingham Hall, Helmingham, Suffolk, England: Helmingham MS 15, pressmark L.J.IV (paper label, inside of the left board). A loose leaf of paper kept with the manuscript bears a brief description written in ink in a ?20th century hand, with the pressmark reference L.J.IV.2 (with the '2' struck out).
It is not known when the Tollemache family acquired MS Add. 9213; according to Edwards and Griffiths the Tollemache family seems to have began assembling a private library by the mid-16th century, and subsequent generations continued to acquire manuscripts and rare books. The 1993 Sotheby catalogue description suggests that the the manuscript was 'probably bound for Sir Lionel Tollemache, 1648-1726(!), third earl of Dysart', which would place the family's acquisition of the volume before 1727.
Probably the manuscript described as 'Liber Medicines Abubecri' in the 1762 Catalogue of the Library at Helmingham Hall in Suffolk (Suffolk Record Office, Ipswich HD 1538/253/167, printed in Edwards and Griffiths, pp. 362-364). Edwards and Griffiths tentatively suggested that the 'Liber Medicines Abubecri' might be their 'MS 64', now Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania, Library, Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection, MS 24, a copy of the medical works of Isaac Israeli ben Solomon, but since the opening words of MS Add. 9213 are 'Abubecri arazi filij zacarie liber incipit' (1r) it seems much more likely that that the 'Liber Medicines Abubecri' entry in the in the 1762 Catalogue refers to CUL MS Add. 9213.
Owned by Philip Robinson (1902-1991), antiquarian bookseller (with his brother Lionel Robinson (1897-1983)): see correspondence from N.R. Ker, kept with the manuscript.
Purchased by Cambridge University Library as Lot 52 from a sale of Robinson Trust items at Sotheby's on 6 December 1993.
This catalogue record draws on an unpublished description of the manuscript by Jayne Ringrose, used here by kind permission of the author.
2r: de fructibus et pomis redolentibus
Sequence of medieval quire signatures present in the volume in the centre of the lower margin of the final verso of some quires, some signatures probably trimmed away. Quire 9 is marked with the medieval signature 'V', and several subsequent quires are marked in coherent sequence up to Quire 27 which is marked 'XXiii'. In the medieval quire signature sequence present in the volume since Quire 9 is marked 'V', this puts 'I' in the sequence as Quire 5. There are no remnants of any medieval quire signatures present on Quires 1-4.
A small error is present in the medieval quire sequence: Quire 24 is marked 'XX', Quire 25 was originally erroneously marked 'XXXI', but the first 'X' has been erased at a later. Quire 26 is marked 'XXII'.
Main text is written in a late protogothic with some transitional textualis features by at least two scribes.
Written height: 185 mm, width: 115 mm. Ruled in two-column format, in leadpoint and ink, frame and lines. Typically 30 lines to the column, written above top line.
Flourished initial in the 'Arabesque' style on f. 1r at the opening of the main text in red, green, and blue. Minor flourished initials in red and blue with marginal flourishes confined to the height of the initial at significant divisions of the text.
Plain initials in red or blue at minor divisions of the text.
Rubricated headings (red only).
Guide letters for flourished initials in the margins, many trimmed away.
Some text unclear due to rubbing and stains on the leaf.
The extracts here conform to the 'Additio' text in the 1510 printed edition of the Latin text Opera parua Abubetri filii Zacharie filii arasi, 2 vols (Lyon, 1510/11), I:1r–216v; in the 1510 edition, the 'Additions' are printed as an integrated gloss within the main text rather than as a separate section of text at the end. The early date of MS Add. 9213 means that it is likely that these 'Additio' texts and glosses have travelled with the main text since early on in the Latin transmission of the work of Rāzī.
A note in the text on f. 198r column one, towards the bottom of that column reads 'Glose sequitur secundum librum almansoris'.
Full transcription: 'Galen et diascorides cheneuiri est herbas in uere nascens que ramos habet longos . et folia longa . et comeditur cruda . et uocantur ganbul'
Several short template letters, somewhat hermeneutic in style, and not identified in any other manuscripts.
In most cases in these template-letters, the addressee is rendered as '.N.', but the text crossing from the bottom of f. 227v to the top of f. 228r mentions a 'dilectissime Willellmi. There are several references to monks, abbots, and the general setting of life in a religious house among the letters.
1 leaf
Written in the English form of documentary cursiva known as secretary hand.
Written height: 39 mm, width: 212 mm. Single-column format. No ruling.