“Tashrih al-badan” (Anatomy of the body, 14th Century)

The venous system, with figure drawn frontally and the internal organs indicated

Mansur ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Yusuf ibn Ilyas, “Mansur ibn Iiyas”, descended from a Shiraz family of scholars and physicians. His illustrated treatise, “Anatomy of the human body” often called “Mansur's Anatomy” consists of an introduction followed by 5 chapters on the 5 main systems of the body: bones, nerves, muscles, veins and arteries; each illustrated with a full-page diagram. The manuscript was a total new for me, as I always thought that Qur’an has severe restrictions regarding human representations. Indeed, it has, especially in Sunni Islam (representation of all living beings).

The Qur’an condemns idolatry and uses the Arabic term musawwir ("maker of forms," or artist) as an epithet for God. The belief is that the creation of living forms is unique to God, and this includes also representations. I found several references on the internet regarding figural representation in Islamic Art (I recommend the explanations given in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, link is here) and after my investigation I can’t conclude a significant advance about why Mansur decided to illustrate human body in his treatise. I know that other Hakims in Persia, during the Islamic period, strictly observed Qur’am when developing their advances on medicine. My investigation continues, at least to try to understand this exception.

Human skeleton, viewed from behind with the head hyperextended so that the face looks upward

Muscle figure, shown frontally, with extensive text denoting muscles

The Persian contribution to medicine was remarkable during the medieval Islamic period. One of the main roles played by medieval Persian Hakims (doctors or practitioners) in the scientific field of medicine was the conservation, and development of ideas and knowledge based on ancient civilizations, with continuous references to Greek philosophy. Medicine development was also intense during the pre-islamic period, from a practical point of view even: the archaeological case study of a 13-year old girl in south-east Iran indicated that she had cranial surgery to take apart a piece of her skull bone (due to a severe hydrocephaly) and she survived the surgery, this happened during the 3rd century BC. Anesthetic practices are also well known during 10th Century in Persia.

Most famous medical scientific or Hakim during this age in ancient Persia was Ibn Sina, better known in occident as Avicena or Avicenna. He made astute observations and experimentations and wrote around 40 treatises about medicine. His master piece was “The Canon of medicine” (the complete digital facsimil of this treatise has been a target for me during the last years). Other Hakims with significant contributions to medicine science were Fakhr al-din, and Muhammad ibn Zakariya.

Original manuscript of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (19th Century)

The British Library best loved treasure: original manuscript version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll. Lewis carroll was the “pen-name” of Charles Dogdson, Oxford Mathematician mainly specialized on algebra, geometry, and social applications (see Dogdson method for democracy elections) with brilliant works and models related to cryptography. He also developed an intense activity on the fields of photography and literature. There’s a complete bio on Wikipedia link (here), so again I’ll not extend about his life details… my big surprise arrived when I discovered how Lewis Carroll started this tale: he simply improvised the story one summer's day in 1862 giving a boat trip to Alice and Edith Liddell, the young daughters of the Dean of his college. The ten-year-old Alice was so entranced that she begged him to write it down for her, and he did it. Alice Pleasance Liddell finally received the manuscript on her next birthday, with around 90 pages including 37 illustrations.

The real Alice (Alice Liddell), photo by Charles Dogdson

After this, Mr. Dogdson decided to publish the tale, and from this point the history is well known. He completed the sequel with “Through the Looking-Glass”, and also wrote the poems "The Hunting of the Snark" and "Jabberwocky".

...she went on growing and growing and very soon had to kneel down...

The delicious legal discussion with the Queen...

Alice with the white -splendidly dressed- rabbit

In front of the door... what to do?

"The Emperor’s Astronomy" (16th Century)

The “Emperor’s Astronomy” (Petrus Apianus, 1495-1552) is one of the great masterpieces of sixteenth-century printing, and also one of the top-ten in my personal digital collection. I found the codex a couple of months ago, when I was looking for “volvelles” (or wheel chart, which is a paper slide chart with rotating parts used mainly in ancient astronomy treatises, introduced by Persian astronomer Abu Rayhan Biruni).

I’ll not extend on Petrus Apianus BIO, Wikipedia has a relatively detailed article here. As remarkable fact, Apianus became a favourite scientific of Emperor Charles V through his work and produced also some well known treatises like the “Cosmographicus liber” and other works with variations and studys of Pascal’s triangle, collections of volvelles, and the first known depiction of Bedouin constellation.

Regarding the “Emperor’s Astronomy”... Most of the Volvelles in the codex are used –based on Ptolemaic system- to provide a remarkably accurate graphical calculation of a planet’s position. There is even one for calculating the longitude of Mercury, which contains nine printed parts plus a complex hidden infrastructure to allow movement around four separate axes. Throughout the initial part of his book, Apianus gives detailed instructions for the operation of the volvelles, using as his examples the birth dates of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and  his brother Ferdinand I, the dedicatees. But the most curious volvelle is used… for finding the hour of conception from the time of birth and the phase of the moon!!

The second part of the Astronomicum Caesareum deals primarily with lunar eclipses and five comets observed by Apianus in the 1530s. One of them is the one now known as Halley’s Comet. There are 93 known survived copies of this treatise around the world. In 1985 a copy of the Astronomicum Caesareum was auctioned for 80,000 dollars.