Constantine the African and Ali ibn al-Abbas al-Magusi: The Pantegni and Related Texts.

• Author: Cooper, Glen M.
• Position: Review

Edited by CHARLES BURNETT and DANIELLE JACQUART. Studies in Ancient Medicine, vol. 10. Leiden: E. J. BRILL, 1994. Pp. ix + 364. HF1 172.50, $108.50.

This volume contains fifteen conference papers (four are in French) originally presented at the Warburg Institute in 1990. They severally treat different aspects of the eleventh-century translation of medical texts from Arabic into Latin. The principal Arabic text considered is the medical treatise Kitab Kamil as-Sina a at-Tibbiyya ("The Complete Book of the Medical Art") of cAli ibn al- Abbas al-Majusi ("Haly Abbas" [fl. tenth century]). The first translation of this text into Latin was by Constantine the African (d. 1087?), who rendered the title as Pantegni (from [Greek Text Omitted] "the complete art"). The Kitab was the first comprehensive Arabic medical text to be translated into Latin, and its importance for the revival of Western learning cannot be exaggerated. There are many useful tools among these essays for the student of the transmission of scientific ideas, among which are a comprehensive survey of the 128 known manuscripts of the Kitab, which contains many not appearing in Sezgin's reference; and a survey of the 108 known Latin manuscripts of the Pantegni.

Very little is known about al-Majusi, except that he was born in the early tenth century in Iran, apparently of a Magian family, and that he was associated with prince Adud al-Dawla, the dedicatee of the Kitab (prior to 367/978). More is known about Constantine: Francis Newton discusses the state of our knowledge of Constantine's biography, introducing new data about his students. Newton proves from the biography and details of textual transmission that the hitherto unidentified translator of the Masa il fi t-tibb of Hunayn ibn Ishaq (the Isagoge of Johannitius) was Constantine, as one of his earliest efforts. This text rapidly became part of the standard medical curriculum.

The Kitab also influenced Jewish physicians. Ron Barkai examines the four known Judaeo-Arabic manuscripts containing portions of the Kitab, and concludes that though al-Majusi's treatise did not attain significant recognition among Hebrew physicians, its translation served to supply Hebrew with a more precise anatomical lexicon.

Several of the articles discuss the fidelity of Constantine's translations, and draw comparisons between it and a later, more literal translation of the Kitab, by Stephen of Antioch.

Gerrit Bos compares Ibn al-Jazzar's Risala fi...