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Qanun of Avicenna, National Library of Medicine Copy

A manuscript copy of Avicenna's famous medical encyclopedia, the Qanun (Canon of Medicine), held by the National Library of Medicine.

This manuscript copy of the Qanun preserves Avicenna's own major medical text for later readers.

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Page of an Arabic manuscript in brown leather binding, with an illuminated gold and blue headpiece bearing calligraphic text above a block of black handwritten Arabic script with red-ink annotations.
Manuscript copy of Avicenna's Qanun (Canon of Medicine). National Library of Medicine.

About this source

What it is

This is a manuscript page from a copy of Avicenna's Qanun (Canon of Medicine), written in Arabic with an illuminated gold and blue decorative headpiece and red-ink annotations. It is held by the National Library of Medicine, though detailed information about this particular copy is limited.

Why it matters

The Qanun was Avicenna's major medical work and remained a standard reference in medicine for centuries. Manuscript copies like this one show how his text was reproduced and decorated by later scribes, reflecting the importance given to preserving his knowledge.

Look closer

  • What does the decorated headpiece suggest about how valuable this text was considered?
  • Why do you think red ink was used for some annotations?
  • What questions would you want answered about who copied this manuscript and when?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Avicenna on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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