The Tacuinum Sanitatis: A Medieval Health Manual

The article concerns an Arab physician whose works were among those translated into Latin in the early medieval period --

, an eleventh-century Christian physician from Baghdad, who compiled the Taqwīm al-Sihha (Tables of Health). This is a a tabular compilation of 280 items which was translated and published in several editions, mostly of Italian origin. These versions – nearly all known as the Tacuinum Sanitatis – became quite popular in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The reason for its popularity is a matter still subject to debate. The original Arabic version includes no images; however, this was not the case in the Latin versions of the late Middle Ages where each entry included a detailed illustration. The article compares the Arabic and Latin manuscripts for the purposes of examining two key differences and to discuss what they show us about the two cultures that generated and used them.