The Herbal of al-Ghāfiqī Book Launch - McGill

Osler Library of the History of Medicine, 3rd Floor, McIntyre Medical Building, 3655 Promenade Sir William Osler, Montreal, QC H3G 1Y6
View Larger Map ›

Please join us for this exciting launch at the newly re-opened Osler Library!

The Herbal of al-Ghāfiqī: A Facsimile Edition with Critical Essays 

Edited by F. Jamil Ragep (Director of McGill’s Institute for Islamic Studies) and Faith Wallis (McGill, History and Classical Studies/Social Studies of Medicine)

The manuscript in question is exceptional: a 13^th-century illustrated copy of the treatise on materia medica by a physician and scholar from al-Andalus (Muslim Iberia), Abū Jaʿfar al-Ghāfiqī (d. ca. 1165 CE).The Osler manuscript has 468 primary entries for mainly herbal, but also mineral and animal, drugs. It also includes around 2200 secondary entries that provide synonyms in a staggering assortment of languages, including Greek, Sanskrit, Syriac, Persian, Berber, Old Spanish, Latin, Coptic, and Armenian, reflecting the international character of medicine and pharmacy at the time. Complementing the facsimile edition are six essays by eminent scholars who deal with the physical features and history of the manuscript, the philological complexity of the text, Ghāfiqī’s sources, the Andalusian as well as the larger global context of the herbal, and the illustrations accompanying the text.

Click here for more info about McGill's Ghafiqi Project

Anyone with an interest in any aspect of the Middle Ages is welcome to attend this free event.