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Reynolds Historical Library |
Contents of the Ninth Book of the Al' Mansuri
The full Hebrew title of this book is Beur ha-Helek ha-Teth misepher Harazi mehatahluim mikaf regel vead rosh. [Exposition of the Ninth part of Rhazes [dealing with] the diseases from foot to head]. The text begins with a preface by the translator, Tobiel ben Samuel de Leiria, followed by an introduction by the commentator Gerard de Solo, who quotes, among others, the Canon of Avicenna. This manuscript preserved 77 chapters of the original work by Rhazes (it usually consists of 95). Each chapter is a short treatise on a special disease or a phase of it. The following is an essential list of the various diseases and body disturbances covered:
| Subject | Chapter |
| Abdomen & stomach | 46,65,70,75 |
| Appetite | 67 |
| Apoplexy | 4 |
| Asthma | 56 |
| Blood (spitting or vomiting with) | 59-60 |
| Catarrh | 14 |
| Convulsion | 6 |
| Coughing | 55 |
| Heart | 62 |
| Influenza | 11 |
| Kidneys (stone in) | 75 |
| Lungs | 58, 61 |
| Liver | 68-69 |
| Melancholia | 13 |
| Mouth | 9 |
| Nose | 39-40 |
| Spasms | 10 |
| Spleen | 71, 73 |
| Swallowing a leech (how to remove it) | 48 |
| Teeth diseases | 41-44 |
| Throat | 49-54 |
| Tongue | 50-53 |
| Ulcers (in the mouth, etc.) | 45-46 |
| Urine disturbances | 76-77 |
On some margins throughout the text there are additional notes by previous owners of the book,
occasionally adding some medical information, explaining words, or attesting that they used a certain
remedy prescribed in this book with successful results. On the vellum fly-leaf there are some
astrological notes by a not much later hand than the original scribe. Fine
drawings in various colors illuminate the beginning of the manuscript, the headings of the chapters, and
various other prominent places (approximately 30 pages throughout the manuscript). The
illuminations consist mainly of fancifully intertwined arabesques and grotesque forms of fantastic animals or distorted human faces.