A Judeo-Spanish Manuscript on Medicine from Istanbul (17th Century). Ibn Sina´s Canon of Medicine and other texts (Ms. Fr 3172, The National Library of Israel)

Abstract

The purpose of this article is the description of a manuscript in the National Library of Israel. It contains a medical treatise written in Judeo-Spanish by a Sephardic Jew. According to the catalogue of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts (IMHM), the manuscript is a translation of the Canon of Avicenna but in reality it is a complex text, parts of which follow the Avicenna’s Canon and other sections that seem to be an original work based on the author’s own experience as a physician. The IHMH catalogue states that the work was written in Istanbul in the 17th century.