Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā)
Canon of Medicine, ‘On muscles’
Paper, Italy or France, 15th–16th century
T-S NS 90.75

This elegant bifolium contains a portion of the anatomical section of Avicenna’s Canon in Hebrew translation. The two pages, preserving chapters 10–13 and 21–24, are devoted to the treatment of muscular systems related to the larynx, the throat, the nose, the tongue, the back, the abdomen and the testicles, and of the muscles used for urinating. At least seven different partial or total translations of Avicenna’s Canon into Hebrew are attested and they derive mostly from countries where Jewish physicians could not read Arabic or Judaeo-Arabic but were very keen on studying Avicenna’s masterpiece.