Liber pantegni

Omnia opera Ysaac

The Liber pantegni (παντεχνῆ "[encompassing] all [medical] arts") is a medieval medical text compiled by Constantinus Africanus (died before 1098/99) prior to 1086. It was dedicated to Abbot Desiderius of Monte Cassino, before he ascension to the papacy that year.[1] In 2010, the earliest known copy of the Pantegni, made at Monte Cassino under Constantine's supervision, was discovered.[2]

The Pantegni is a compendium of Hellenistic and Islamic medicine, in large parts a translation from the Arabic of the Kitab al-Malaki "Royal Book" of Ali ibn al-Abbas al-Majusi. A distinction is made between theorica and practica, as it has been made before in the so-called Isagoge Johannitii, an earlier medical text that was originally written by Hunayn ibn Ishaq. Each part of al-Majusi's original, Theorica and Practica, had had ten books. In Constantine's version, however, perhaps because of damage when Constantine brought his books from North Africa to Italy, the Practica was never completed. Although the Theorica was translated in its entirety, extant manuscripts from the 12th century show only a three-book Practica, consisting of Book I on regimen, Book II on simple (uncompounded) medicinal substances, and Book III on surgery. Even this last book was left incomplete upon Constantine's death, and was only completed in 1114-15 by two other translators.[3]

It was perhaps an acolyte of Constantine's who pieced together a "complete" version of the Practica, taking excerpts from several of Constantine's other translations (such as the Viaticum and his translation of Isaac Israeli's 10th-century book on fevers) and weaving them together into what passed as al-Majusi's full ten-book treatise. This "re-created" twenty-book Pantegni began to circulate in the 13th century and would be printed in 1515 under Isaac Israeli's name.

In 1127, Stephen of Antioch criticized the incompleteness and poor quality of Constantine's Pantegni and re-translated al-Majusi's Arabic treatise anew. This was known as the Liber regalis dispositionis.[4] Nevertheless, Constantine's Pantegni proved to be the far more influential text; it now survives in over 100 manuscript copies, whereas Stephen's Liber regalis survives in only eight.[5]

Editions

References

  1. ↑ Constantine the African and Ali ibn al-Abbas al-Maǧusi: The Pantegni and Related Texts, The Journal of the American Oriental Society, Edited by Charles Burnett and Danielle Jacquart, Studies in Ancient Medicine, vol. 10. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994.
  2. ↑ "Revolutionizing Medicine Around the Year 1100: International Team of Scholars Examines Transformative Period in Medical History," 10 October 2010, http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/newsrel2010/prrevmedicine.htm
  3. ↑ Monica H. Green, “The Re-Creation of Pantegni, Practica, Book VIII,” in Burnett and Jacquart 1994, pp. 121-60; Mary F. Wack, “‘Ali ibn al-‘Abbas al-Mağusi and Constantine on Love, and the Evolution of the Practica Pantegni,” in Burnett and Jacquart 1994, pp. 161-202; and Raphaela Veit, “Al-Mağusi’s Kitab al-Malaki and its Latin Translation Ascribed to Constantine the African: The Reconstruction of Pantegni, Practica, Liber III,” Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 16 (2006), 133-168.
  4. ↑ Charles Burnett, "Stephen, the Disciple of Philosophy, and the Exchange of Medical Learning in Antioch," Crusades 5 (2006), pp. 113-29.
  5. ↑ "Constantine the African and Ali ibn al-Abbas al-Maǧusi: The Pantegni and Related Texts", The Journal of the American Oriental Society, Edited by Burnett and Jacquart, Studies in Ancient Medicine, vol. 10. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994.

Literature

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