Layout: 2 columns of 33 lines Script: Humanistic Decoration: On f. 1, 3-line pink initial on a gold ground (infilling possibly in blue but the colors are badly washed), with marginal flourishing in brown ink, terminating in gold balls, and at top, at middle and at bottom terminating in pink flowers. 2-line alternating red and blue initials with filigree always in the same pale purple ink. Alternating red and blue paragraph marks. Binding: Bound, for the front cover, s. XVIII, in brown morocco over pasteboard with a narrow gilt stamping along the edge of the book; for the back cover, half bound, s. XX, in light brown pasteboard with morocco trim; both boards are now detached. Watermark: Watermark Driberge, on paper used in quarto format so that the watermarks are caught in the gutter of the binding; on f. 96 (in folio format), the only example of watermark, “Crown.” Provenance: Gift in 1921 to the New York Academy of Medicine by the heirs of the founder of American pediatrics, Dr. Abraham Jacobi (1830-1919). De Ricci states the ms to be localized and dated (Siena, 1425) but such information pertains to the author's own work, not to this copy of it. Watermark Driberge, on paper used in quarto format so that the watermarks are caught in the gutter of the binding On f. 96 (in folio format), the only example of watermark, “Crown.” On quires 1-9, catchwords written vertically along the inner bounding line, top to bottom on every 10th leaf, verso; ff. 91-102 are a gathering of 12 leaves; ff. 103-105 of uncertain structure. Damage: f. 1, torn and the lower half repaired with acidic paper; waterstains throughout the volume; paper torn sporadically throughout from dampness and generally very weakened. A commentary by Dominicus de Ragusa (now, Dubrovnik), finished on 3 June 1425 while he was in Siena, on Rhazes, Liber Almansoris, Book 9 (in the Latin translation of Gerard of Cremona, A.D. 1114-1187) Book 9 served as a standard textbook on therapeutics in university studies. Pearl Kibre, “Hitherto Unnoted Medical Writings by Dominicus de Ragusia (1421-1425 A.D.,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 7 (1939) 990-995, and by the same author, “Dominicus de Ragusa, Bolognese Doctor of Arts and Medicine,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 45.4 (1971) 383-386 [her 1939 article is about this manuscript; her 1971 article adds to the biography and writings of Dominicus de Ragusa]. An extract from Peter of Abano's De venenis, but with the contents tested by Dominicus himself, including both visual reports on certain poisons as well as antidotes. Commentary on the first six of twenty-two fen of the third book of Avicenna's Canon, and covering: the head, the nerves, the eyes, the ears, the nose and the tongue and mouth. On f. 96v, an interesting anecdote about a promise that Dominicus de Ragusa had gotten from Gentile da Fabriano (ca. 1370-1427) whereby Gentile would depict the various colors of urine in a painting for Dominicus, but worried by the plague, Gentile left the city and didn't return. On ff. 103-105, chapter list for all the treatises in the book Early modern notes in the index: on f. 103 opposite the heading De sanguine fluente ex naribus, is written: Pro magistro D. Marco Antonio de Raigusia; on f. 103v beside De emissione sanguinis per os, is written: Pro idem Raigusia; on f. 104v beside De aqua descendente in oculis, is written: Pro Excellente Domino Matteo de Dunalibus.
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