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General History of the Things of New Spain by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún: The Florentine Codex. Book XI: Natural Things
Historia general de las cosas de nueva España (General history of the things of New Spain) is an encyclopedic work about the people and culture of central Mexico compiled by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún (1499–1590), a Franciscan missionary who arrived in Mexico in 1529, eight years after completion of the Spanish conquest by Hernan Cortés. Commonly referred to as the Florentine Codex, the manuscript consists of 12 books devoted to different topics. Book XI, the longest in the codex, is a treatise on natural history. Following the traditional division ...
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Medicea Laurenziana Library, Florence
The Encyclopedia of Medicaments
This book is a printed edition of the Pandectarum Medicinae (Encyclopedia of medicaments) by Matthaeus Sylvaticus (died circa 1342), consisting of an alphabetized list of medications (primarily of herbal origin). Sylvaticus relies on the work of Simon of Genoa (flourished end of 13th century), who provided a lexicon of Latin, Greek, and Arabic medical terms in his dictionary, Clavis Sanationis. Sylvaticus also draws upon works by Greco-Roman authorities such as Galen, Dioscorides, and Paulus Aegineta (seventh century). Among his other sources were the writings of important scientists from the Islamic ...
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Qatar National Library
Of Medical Substances
The precious codex known as the Dioscurides Neapolitanus contains the work of Pedanius Dioscorides, the Greek physician who was born at Anazarbus near Tarsus in Cilicia (present-day Turkey) and lived in the first century AD during the reign of the Emperor Nero. Dioscorides wrote the treatise Perì üles iatrichès, commonly known in Latin as De materia medica (Of medical substances), in five books. It is considered the most important medical manual and pharmacopeia of ancient Greece and Rome and was highly regarded in the Middle Ages in both the Western ...
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National Library of Naples
The Book of Medicinal and Nutritional Terms
This manuscript is a copy of Kitab Al-jami li-mufradat al-adwiya wa al-aghdhiya (The book of medicinal and nutritional terms), an alphabetical encyclopedia by the Andalusian author, ‘Abd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Bayṭār al-Mālaqī (circa 1197–1248), containing the names and properties of more than 1,000 plants and substances of medicinal value.  The author quotes many earlier scientists, including Dioscorides, Galen, and Avicenna. Ibn al-Bayṭār was born in Malaga, hence the reference al-Mālaqī in his name, and the text contains numerous references to Andalusia and to Andalusian place-names such as ...
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National Library and Archives of Egypt
Four Books on the Nature and Virtues of Plants and Animals for Medicinal Purposes in New Spain
Francisco Hernández de Toledo (1514–87) was a court physician, who in 1570 was ordered by King Philip II of Spain to embark on a scientific mission to New Spain (as Mexico was then called) to study the medicinal plants of the New World. For seven years Hernández traveled throughout the country, collecting specimens and gathering information on how plants were used by indigenous physicians. He returned to Spain in 1577 with 16 volumes of notes and with numerous illustrations made by three indigenous painters who assisted him in his ...
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National Library of Spain
The Book of Medicinal and Nutritional Terms
Abu Muhammad Abdallah Ibn Ahmad Ibn al-Baitar Dhiya al-Din al-Malaqi (known as Ibn al-Baitar, circa 1197–1248 AD) was an Andalusian Arab scientist, botanist, pharmacist, and physician. He was born in Malaga, Spain, and died in Damascus, Syria. He is considered one of the major scientists of Muslim Spain. His father was a veterinarian, which earned him the nickname al-Baitar, Arabic for veterinarian. Ibn al-Baitar was also trained by a pioneering Andalusian botanist called Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati. Kitab Al-jami li-mufradat al-adwiya wa al-aghdhiya (The book of medicinal and nutritional terms ...
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Bibliotheca Alexandrina
Book of Herbs
Johannes Hartlieb’s Kräuterbuch (Book of herbs) of 1462 is basically an extract from Konrad von Megenberg’s Buch der Natur (Book of nature) written a century earlier, which was the first natural history in the German language. Hartlieb’s subject is plants, mostly herbs, and their medical uses. What makes the Kräuterbuch special is the side-by-side presentation of text and images. The high cost of such a richly decorated book makes it unlikely that it was actually used by doctors or pharmacists of the time. The botanical imprecision of ...
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Berlin State Library - Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation