The earliest fully documented illustrated anatomical manual in the West appears in the 12th centruy A.D., when copies were executed of a small tract interspersed with full-page anatomical diagrams. These Latin illustrations, with extensive captions and explanatory texts, have counterparts in a large number of Arabic and Persian manuscripts which were copied much more recently than the earliest of the Latin copies. The relatioship between these Islamic anatomical plates and the Latin ones has never been investigated, and the origin of the anatomical series remains a puzzle. No systematic and detailed examination and comparison of the two traditions has ever been undertaken. To do so requires a Latinist and an Islamist, both trained in the history of medicine and anatomy. The basic goal of this project is to prepare a definitive edition and translation, together with an interpretative study, of all known copies of the illustrations and pertinent accompanying texts which comprise this early anatomical manual. The two researchers -- an historian of Islamic medicine and an historian of medieval Latin anatomy -- will examine both the Latin and Islamic versions of the series. They will compare them and analyze their interrelationships, as well as attempt to establish their possible origins. Because considerable material has been gathered and preliminary work already undertaken by the co-principal investigator on the Latin versions, funds requested in this grant are primarily for the preparation of the edition and analysis of the Islamic versions. A scholarly edition of this earliest of all illustrated anatomical manuals would interest and benefit modern anatomists as well as medievalists and historians of medicine, for it constitutes one of the most significant documents in the entire history of human anatomy.
| Savage-Smith, E (1995) Attitudes toward dissection in medieval Islam. J Hist Med Allied Sci 50:67-110 |
