Author: IBN SINA (AVICENNA) and Gherardo da CREMONA (translator).
Title: Liber canonis totius medicine.(Colophon:) Lyon, Jacques Myt, 1522. 4to. With the title printed in red, set within an elaborate woodcut architectural frame, 115 metal cut decorated initials. Later blind-tooled brown calf, with the contemporary richly blind-tooled brown calf laid down on both boards showing 6 horizontal panels alternating 2 different rolls within an elaborate multi-fillet frame, sewn on 4 supports with corresponding raised bands on the spine, the leather on both boards shows small holes once containing closing ties.
Description: [8], 453 ll.One of the most important medical works of the Middle Ages. The work includes all parts of al-Qanun, the most authoritative medical text from the Islamic world, written in Arabic by Ibn Sina (known in the West as Avicenna, ca. 980-1037). The present work contains the Latin translation of Gherardo da Cremona (ca. 1114-1187), which formed the basis of medical training in the Western world from the early 13th- to the mid-17th century. The present Lyon edition appears to be scarce, as we have only been able to find four other copies of it in sales records of the past hundred years.Completed in 1025, the Qanun (also known as the Canon of medicine) is divided into five books, which discuss the basic principles of medicine, the materia medica (listing about 800 drugs), pathology, diseases affecting the body as a whole, and finally the formulary. It was first printed in Latin translation in 1472 and went through many editions. The present work is the second complete Lyon edition. The first was printed in 1498 by Jean Trechsel, and an abridged version appeared in 1508. The present edition has the same contents as the Venice 1505 edition, but with the addition of The life of Avicenna by Franciscus Calphurnius and Annotationes errata et castigationes in Avicenne opera by French physician Symphorien Champier.Ibn Sina was physician to the ruling caliphs. The influence of his Qanun can hardly be overestimated. Translated into Latin in the 12th century, it became a standard textbook of Galenic medicine, influencing many generations of physicians. “One of the most famous medical texts ever written, a complete exposition of Galenism. Neuburger says: ‘It stands for the epitome of all precedent development, the final codification of all Graeco-Arabic medicine’. It dominated the medical schools of Europe and Asia for five centuries” (Garrison & Morton).With a 17th-century ownership annotation of the Jesuit College in Fribourg in the upper margin of the title page ("Collegii S.J. Friburg Buisy 1664"), surrounding a crossed out annotation ("Ex ......"), identical owner's stamps on the verso of title and the verso of the final leaf (the monogram "VF" within a laurel wreath, and an unidentified university library stamp). Further with 16th-century annotations in the margins of several leaves. The work has been professionally restored, with the contemporary leather laid down on both boards. The contemporary leather has somewhat cracked, the head margin has been cut somewhat short, affecting a few annotations, occasionally foxed in the margins, brown spots on the first and final few leaves, a water stain in the lower inner margin of the final few leaves, worm holes in the top margin of the final leaf, lacking the free end papers and the final blank leaf. Otherwise in good condition.l Durling 380; USTC 145535; WorldCat 14317589, 491089236, 1061910264, 181712519; cf. Carter & Muir, Printing and the mind of men 11; Garrison & Morton 43; Lilly library, notable medical books, p. 53; not in Baudrier.

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