30 IBN ZUHR (AVENZOAR); IBN RUSHD (AVERROES). Liber Teisir, sive Rectificatio medicationis et regiminis [&] Colliget; [with] ZIMARA, Marcantonio. Theoremata seu memorabilium propositionum limitationes noviter impressa; [and with] BONET, Nicolas. Metaphysicam videlicet naturalem phylosophiam, praedicamenta, necnon theologiam naturalem. Venice: Octavianus Scotus; Heirs of Octavianus Scotus; 1496; 1531; 1505 the influence of islamic medico-philosophical thought in the european renaissance Rare first Scotus printing of Ibn Rushd’s medical encyclopaedia Kitab al-Kulliyyat with the complementary manual Kitab al-Taysir by Ibn Zuhr; here bound with two philosophical treatises by Zimara and Bonet discussing Ibn Rushd’s Aristotelian doctrines. With numerous marginalia and a loosely inserted 25-line manuscript note, this ensemble is a fascinating witness to the Renaissance’s interest in Islamic knowledge. Ibn Zuhr ( c .1091–1162, Latinized as Avenzoar), “the most renowned physician of Muslim Spain” (Azar, p. 1), was born to a family of physicians – originally from Arabia – who served the Spanish rulers for six generations. His best-known work is the complex Kitab al-Taysir fimudawat wa’l-tadbir ( Liber Teisir in Latin, “Book to Facilitate Therapeutics and Regimen”), an empirical treatise on pathology and therapy which is of importance to the development of surgery. Ibn Zuhr’s contemporary, Ibn Rushd (1126–1198, Latinized as Averroes) was “the most important philosopher of al-Andalus, the medieval commentator on Aristotle par excellence” (Glick, Livesy & Wallis, p. 253). He met Ibn Zuhr, who may have contributed to his medical training, in Seville. The Kitab al-Kulliyyat fi’l-Tibb (“Book of Generalities about Medicine”), most commonly referred to as the Colliget , stands as Ibn Rushd’s most significant contribution to medicine, which attempts to found a system of medicine upon Aristotle’s philosophy. The Latin translations of the two treatises were published for the first time as a single volume in 1490 in Venice by Gregorius de Gregoriis. This 1496 edition, the second overall, was edited by Hyeronimus Surianus, who used Paravicius Patavinus’s translation of the Taysir from Jacobus’s Haebreus previous Hebrew version, and Jacob Bonacosa’s translation of the Kulliyyat from the original Arabic. Pietro Bembo characterized the Italian philosopher Marcantonio Zimara ( c .1460–1532) as a “barbarous Averroist”. He was “an Averroist of strict observance . . . truly supreme among the Averroists, who thought ‘if Averroes in his exposition of Aristotle could be said to be a new Aristotle, Zimara in his commentary on Averroes was worthy to be named a new Averroes” (Garin, p. 360). Theoremata is Zimara’s magnum opus, first published in Naples by Pietro de Domenico in 1523. Like the preceding work, this edition is Scotus’s first, the second overall; it was reprinted several times after this. After ten years of philological studies and teaching, Zimara finally proposed a theoretical reconciliation between the doctrines of Aristotle and Ibn Rushd. The work is considered an “important landmark in the history of pre-Galilean and pre- Cartesian scientific thought” (translated from Roccaro, p. 59), in which Zimara discusses the difference between art and science, classifying medicine as an art. The last work in this Sammelband is the first edition of the Philosophia naturalis of Nicolas Bonet ( c .1280–1343), his philosophical summa. A French Franciscan friar, missionary, and
bishop, “Nicholas was not only the first philosopher in history to write a Philosophia naturalis , but also, in naming the first part of this work, he was also the first person to give the title ‘Metaphysica’ to his own writing” (Duba, p. 12). The other sections of his work comprise the Physics, the Categories, and the Natural Theology. Bonet draws largely from Ibn Rushd, whom he calls an “ancestor”, particularly when describing his famous division between mathematical and physical space. Moderately represented institutionally, these three editions are extremely rare in commerce. No other copies of these editions of Liber Teisir and Colliget or Zimara’s Theoremata have been seen at auction in the past 47 years; only one copy of this edition of Bonet’s work has been sold in the same period, at Christie’s in 2013. 3 works bound in 1 volume, first work in 2 parts with continuous pagination, folio (316 × 217 mm). Early 16th-century limp vellum, traces of ties, blue edges now faded, but suggestive of differential colouring to distinguish the three works. Housed in a cloth flat-back box by the Chelsea Bindery. Printer’s device to title page of second work and to colophon leaf of all works, Gothic text in two columns, woodcut ornate initials with floral motifs, human characters and animals. Stubs from a 16th- century manuscript with calendrical information, early Latin marginalia in different hands to first and second work, one in Italian paraphrasing a Petrarchan verse at p. 44 in first work, loosely inserted paper with 25-line 16th-century manuscript text, copied in part from Ibn Rushd’s commentary to Aristotle’s On Length and Shortness of Life . Binding stained and creased with some loss of vellum to cover edges, but holding, occasional worming to lower margins at gutter (no loss of text), intermittent dampstains and soiling to contents mainly to second work, early repair to title page of third work, edges dusty, otherwise internally clean. An unsophisticated copy with wide margins. ¶ 1) BM STC It. 16th century, p. 2; Goff A1409; ISTC ia01409000; Morton 47, 1490 ed.; USTC 997364; this ed. not in Durling. 2) EDIT 16 CNCE 33335; USTC 864366; this ed. not in Adams or BM STC It. 16th century. 3) Adams B2414; BM STC It. 16th century, p. 119; EDIT 16 CNCE 6951; USTC 816175. Henry Azar, The Sage of Seville: Ibn Zuhr, His Time, and His Medical Legacy , 2008; William Duba, “Mathematical and Metaphysical Space in the Early Fourteenth Century”, Space, Imagination and the Cosmos from Antiquity to the Early Modern Period , 2018; Eugenio Garin, History of Italian Philosophy , 2008; Thomas Glick, Steven J. Livesy, & Faith Wallis, eds, Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: An Encyclopedia , 2005; Giuseppe Roccaro, ed., Platonismo e aristotelismo nel Mezzogiorno d’Italia (secc. XIV–XVI) , 1989. £30,000 [151005]
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sharjah international book fair
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