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57 results
The Ash Wednesday Supper
La cena de le Ceneri (The Ash Wednesday supper), the first of Giordano Bruno’s six Italian philosophical dialogues, was first published in London in 1584. The title page indicates neither the place of publication nor the publisher, but scholars agree that the book was printed at the London shop of John Charlewood. The work is dedicated to the French ambassador to the English court, Michel de Castelnau, sieur de la Mauvissière, who assisted Bruno after his arrival in London in 1583. The book is divided into five dialogues and ...
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Library of the National Academy of the Lincei and of the Corsini Family
General History of the Things of New Spain by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún: The Florentine Codex. Book VI: Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy
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 VI is concerned with rhetoric and moral philosophy. It contains texts that Sahagún collected around 1547 ...
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Medicea Laurenziana Library, Florence
An Examination of the Talents Required for the Sciences
Examen de ingenios para las sciencias (An examination of the talents required for the sciences), first printed in 1575, is the only known work by Juan Huarte de San Juan, who was born in Navarre, Spain, in around 1529. The work seeks to clarify various questions regarding human knowledge and the capacities and abilities found in some persons but not in others, and such questions as what makes a person skilled in one science but not in another and how to recognize which art and science are best suited to ...
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National Library of Spain
Women's Customs Among the Tajiks: Fortune-Telling
This photograph of Tajik women engaged in fortune telling (vorozhba, in Russian; fal'bin in Central Asian languages) is from Turkestan Album, one of the richest sources of visual information on the cultural monuments of Central Asia as they appeared in the 19th century. This multi-volume work was produced in 1871-72 under the patronage of Konstantin P. von Kaufman, a Russian army general and the first governor-general of Turkestan, as the Russian Empire's Central Asian holdings were called. Kaufman held that position from 1867 to 1886, during which time ...
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Library of Congress
Encyclopedic Manuscript Containing Allegorical and Medical Drawings
In the Middle Ages, medicine was very much intertwined with astrology and other nonscientific superstitions. This manuscript on vellum, produced in southern Germany around 1410, contains pen and ink drawings with explanatory texts in German and Latin. The first drawing shows the earth and seven planets. It is followed by Zodiac-man, a naked man shown with the 12 signs of the zodiac, each relating to a specific part of the body. Next are four bloodletting charts of the human body. Such bleeding charts or calendars were widely used in this ...
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Library of Congress
Desired Transformations, or, On Negations and Affirmations in Rectifying Wisdom
This treatise contains information on a medley of subjects, including alchemy, numerology, mineralogy, and magic. It begins with quotations from Kashf al-asrār wa hatk al-astār (Unveiling of secrets and tearing of covers), a well-known eighth-century (second-century A.H.) work attributed to Jābir (ibn Ḥayyān). A whole other work seems to be written in the margins. The text mentions such authorities as Galen (Jālīnūs), Zīsmūs, Hermes, Democrates, Shaykh Abu al-‘Abbās Aḥmad al-Baunī, and Ghazālī. Parts of the manuscript are smudged and damaged.
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National Library and Archives of Egypt
An Essay on Statements in Logic
This treatise by the prominent Shafi’i theologian Muhammad al-Amidi (died 1233 [631 AH]) deals with questions of original existence and mental existence. The manuscript copy shown here was made in 1805 by an unknown scribe. It is from the Bašagić Collection of Islamic Manuscripts in the University Library of Bratislava, Slovakia, which was inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World register in 1997. Safvet beg Bašagić (1870–1934) was a Bosnian scholar, poet, journalist, and museum director who assembled a collection of 284 manuscript volumes and 365 print ...
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University Library in Bratislava
A Treatise on Book Titles
This short work by the prominent Shafi’i theologian Muhammad al-Amidi (died 1233 [631 AH]) continues an earlier discussion by the same author about original existence and mental existence. In this work, al-Amidi considers the elements of place and time and discusses their relationship to existence. The manuscript copy shown here is by an unknown scribe, and dates from the early 19th century. It is from the Bašagić Collection of Islamic Manuscripts in the University Library of Bratislava, Slovakia, which was inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World register ...
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University Library in Bratislava
An Essay on the Field of Scholarship
This work by Muhammad al-Amidi (died 1786 [1180 AH]?) examines the concept of knowledge, both as innate (hudhoori) and acquired (husooli). The author explores the disagreement between philosophers and theologians over the nature of divine knowledge, and the difference between divine and human knowledge. This manuscript copy dates from 1805. It is from the Bašagić Collection of Islamic Manuscripts in the University Library of Bratislava, Slovakia, which was inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World register in 1997. Safvet beg Bašagić (1870–1934) was a Bosnian scholar, poet, journalist ...
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University Library in Bratislava
A Treatise on the Division of Theoretical Scholarship
This four-page essay on the difference between pre-theoretical belief and theoretical imagination was written by the prominent Shafi’i theologian Muhammad al-Amidi (died 1233 [631 AH]). The manuscript copy shown here was made in the early 19th century by an unknown scribe. It is from the Bašagić Collection of Islamic Manuscripts in the University Library of Bratislava, Slovakia, which was inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World register in 1997. Safvet beg Bašagić (1870–1934) was a Bosnian scholar, poet, journalist, and museum director who assembled a collection of ...
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University Library in Bratislava
Free Will and Acts of Faith
This manuscript is a philosophical-religious work with citations from the Qur’an. The text of this copy dating from the early 19th century is written in a very small and poor quality Nasta’liq script with black ink on thin yellowish paper. This style of Perso-Arabic script was the predominant style of Persian calligraphy in the 14th and 15th centuries and was very popular with Ottoman calligraphers. The manuscript is bound with ten other works dealing with grammar, rhetoric, and other subjects. It is from the Bašagić Collection of Islamic ...
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University Library in Bratislava
Comparisons in Arabic Grammar
A considerable portion of this untitled work by an unknown author is devoted to a discussion of al-qiyas, or comparison, in Arabic grammar. The work also contains excerpts from a work by Muftizade and disquisitions about logic, as well as other references to Muftizade. The manuscript was transcribed by Abdallah al-Hamshini. The manuscript is from the Bašagić Collection of Islamic Manuscripts in the University Library of Bratislava, Slovakia, which was inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World register in 1997. Safvet beg Bašagić (1870-1934) was a Bosnian scholar, poet ...
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University Library in Bratislava
The Zhaocheng Jin Tripitaka
This edition of the Buddhist canon was printed between about the ninth year of the Huangtong era of Xizong of the Jin dynasty and sometime in the Dading era of Shizong, and for this reason is called the "Jin Tripitaka" by scholars. It is also called the “Jin Tripitaka from Tianning Temple in Xiezhou" because the woodblocks were carved at Tianning Temple on Jinglin Mountain, in Xiezhou, Shanxi (modern Xie County in the Jinnan district). In 1933, the work was rediscovered at Guangsheng Temple in Zhaocheng County, Shanxi, so its ...
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National Library of China
Twenty-One Hymns to the Rescuer Mother of Buddhas
Also known as “Twenty-One Hymns to the Rescuer Saint Tārā, Mother of Buddhas,” this item is a sutra from Tibetan esoteric Buddhism. The copyist was Yong Rong (1744–90), sixth son of the Qianlong emperor and general editor of the Siku quanshu. In addition to being a poet, calligrapher, and painter, Yong Rong had a sophisticated understanding of astronomy and mathematics. On the top protective cover of this item is written, “Imperially commissioned translation of the hymn to the rescuer mother of Buddhas," in Manchu, Tibetan, Mongolian, and Chinese scripts ...
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National Library of China
Collected Works of Han Yu
Han Yu is chief among the eight major writers of the Tang and Song dynasties. His writings are rich in content, powerful, fresh, and lively. The 40-juan (section) Collected Works of Han Yu (Changli xiansheng ji [Collected works of the Master from Changli]) was compiled by his disciple Li Han, and is the most comprehensive compendium of Han Yu’s works. The “Outer Collection” and “Omitted Writings” were added by Song dynasty scholars who recovered lost works by Han. This edition was printed in the Jianchun era (late 13th ...
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National Library of China
The Su Wen of the Huangdi Neijing (Inner Classic of the Yellow Emperor)
Huangdi neijing (The inner classic of the yellow emperor) was created some time between the Warring States period and the Qin-Han period as a summation of Chinese medical knowledge up to the time of the Han dynasty. It is the earliest surviving work on Chinese medicine. The work is divided into two parts: the Su wen (Basic questions) and the Ling shu (Numinous spindle). After the Han dynasty, each part circulated separately. Su wen is written in a question-and-answer format involving the Yellow Emperor and various physicians of high antiquity ...
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National Library of China
The Xiping Stone Classics
These engravings of the seven Confucian classics were set up outside the National University Gate, located on the south side of Loyang, the capital city, in the Eastern Han dynasty. They were created between 175 and 183, after Cai Yong and a group of scholars successfully petitioned the emperor to have the Confucian classics carved in stone in order to prevent their being altered to support particular points of view. They are also called the “Han Stone Classics” and the “Single-Script Stone Classics." The seven classics -- The Book of Changes ...
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National Library of China
Diamond Prajna Paramita Sutra
This complete scroll from the first year of the Yifeng era (676) of the Tang dynasty was unearthed in Dunhuang, China. The scroll contains the Diamond Prajna pāramitā sutra, a work that is an important sacred text in the prajñā line of Mahayana Buddhism as well as a foundational text in Chinese Chan (Japanese Zen) Buddhism. The text was transmitted to China in the Period of Southern and Northern Courts in many translations, but the translation by Kumārajīva is the most respected. For generations, it was felt that reciting the ...
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National Library of China
The Four Books in Chapter and Verse with Collected Commentaries
The Analects is one of the important classics for Ruist (Confucian) scholars. It was compiled by the disciples of Confucius and their disciples. It mostly records conversations and dialogs relating to Confucius and his disciples that reflect the views and principles of Confucius as applied to administration, ethics, morality, and education. The generally accepted version of The Analects has 20 sections. Zhu Xi (1130-1200) of the Song dynasty took “The Great Learning” and “The Doctrine of the Mean” from The Book of Rites and combined these extracts with The Mencius ...
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National Library of China
The Keys of Mercy and the Secrets of Wisdom
This manuscript is an invaluable source for understanding alchemical doctrines and practices in the Islamic world during the Middle Ages. Its author, the polymath Mu‛ayyad al-Dīn al-Tuġrā’ī, was born in 1062 AD in Persia (present-day Iran) and worked as a secretary in the Seljuk court. He later was appointed vizier in Mosul (present-day Iraq), but his career came to a dramatic end in 1121, when, following the disgrace of his protector, he was falsely accused of heresy and beheaded. Notes on al-Tuġrā’ī’s biography were added to ...
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Library of Congress
The Book of Proof of the Secrets of the Science of Weights and Measures (Part 3)
This manuscript consists of a section of Kitāb al-burhān fī asrār ‘ilm al-mīzān (Book of proof of the secrets of the science of the weights and measures) by the Persian alchemist Aydamur ibn ´Alī ibn Aydamur al-Gildakī (also seen as al-Jaldakī, died circa 1342). His name indicates that he was born in Jaldak, in present-day Afghanistan. Over the course of 17 years, al-Gildakī  traveled to Iraq, Asia Minor, West Africa, Egypt, Yemen, Hejaz, and Syria. These journeys are recounted in another of his works, Kitāb nihāyat al-ṭalab fī sharḥ kitāb ...
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National Library and Archives of Egypt