Harley MS 3140, ff 196r-254v

The medical summa, traditionally called Viaticum, assembled by Constantine the African (c. 1020-1098/9). The Viaticum is the Latin adaptation of a standard medical manual, entitled Kitāb Zād al-musāfir wa-qūt al-hādir (Provision for the Traveller and the Nourishment of the Settled), composed by the Arab physician Abu Ja‛far Ahmad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn abī Khālid al-Jazzār (d. 979 or 1004-5), a pupil of Ishāq ibn Sulaymān al-Isrā’īlī (fl. c. 855-955), known in Europe as Isaac Judaeus. Constantine's adaptation followed the 'a capite ad calcem' order of the original work and was written in the 1070s or 1080s at Montecassino from where it was widely disseminated throughout Europe by the Benedictine houses.

Title (f. 196r): 'Incipit liber viatici a Constantino in latinam linguam translati', incipit: 'Quoniam quidem ut in rethoricis Tullius omne inquit', explicit: 'et in quo / libro inveniat'; table of contents incipit: 'De allopicia', explicit: 'De tremore et iectrigatione et granea'; rubric 'De capitula ideo sunt proposita ut liber / intactus reservetur in quo auc-/toritatem nostram unitamur / Incipit liber constantini de morbibus / in capite nascentibus', text incipit (f. 196v): 'Capillus ex fumo grosso et calido nascitur', explicit (f. 254v): 'Concule marine incense cum oleo rosato multum valent. Explicit', rubric 'Explicit liber viatici constantini in latinam linguam translati'. The text is divided into seven books, beginning respectively on ff. 196v, 206v, 213v, 223r, 233r, 236v, 243r, each preceded by a table of contents (ff. 196v, 206v, 213v, 222v, 233r, 236r, 243r). With glosses. Other copies of the text are Harley MS 3407 (ff. 83r-90v; fragment) and Harley MS 3719 (ff. 33r-152r, with commentary by Girardus Bituricensis). For the text see L. Thorndike and P. Kibre, Catalogue of Incipits of Medieval Scientific Writings in Latin, The Mediaeval Academy of America Publication, 29 (London, 1963; with supplements in 1965 and 1968), p. 187d for the main text, and p. 1298h for the prologue; its electronic edition (Ann Arbor, MI, 2000), no. 187D for the main text and no. 1298H for the prologue. The work was printed for the first time in 1505 in Venice by Bonetus Locatellus for the heirs of Octavianus Scotus, together with the commentary and other works by Geraldus Bituricensis (a British Library copy is 546.m.14, ff. 89r-192r). Chapters 1-6 of Book 7 of the original Arabic text have been edited with English translation in G. Bos, Ibn al-Jazzār on Fevers. A critical edition of 'Zād al-musāfir wa-qūt al-hādir. Provision for the Traveller and Nourishment for the sedentary, Book 7, Chapters 1-6, The Sir Henry Wellcome Asian Series (London, 2000).