Yale Medical Library. Manuscript. 28 [Paneth codex].

Title: Yale Medical Library. Manuscript. 28 [Paneth codex].
Date Created: 1300?
Place of Origin: Italy, Bologna
Collection: History and Special Collections for the Sciences Collection
Index of Medieval Medical Images

Summary: Completed in Bologna in 1326, the Paneth codex is a large heavy volume, likely used as a university reference book. It contains 42 medical tracts by both classical and contemporary authorities, including Hippocrates, Galen, and Rhazes (Ra?zi?, Abu? Bakr Muhòammad ibn Zakari?ya?, 865?-925?). Veterinary medicine is addressed in works on falconry and the care of horses. The subject of surgery dominates, with more than one quarter of the manuscript devoted to four surgical tracts including one by Albucasis (Abu? Al-Qa?sim Khalaf ibn Abba?s al-Zahra?wi?, d. 1013?),which is illustrated with images of surgical instruments. Nearly 50 miniatures and illustrated initials depict scenes of instruction, physicians attending the sick and bedridden, and medical practices including taking the pulse, bloodletting, uroscopy, and head surgery. Detailed and colorful marginalia include geometric patterns and anthropomorphic figures that appear sometimes to comment humorously on the subjects of the miniatures and initials. Forty-one tables explicate the regimens of Ibn Butlan's Tacuinum sanitatis. The Paneth codex is owned by Yale University.