ISSN 2349-4379 Volume 4 Number1 Journal of Advances in Humanities 423 | Page council for Innovative Research February 2016 www.cirworld.com THE EDITIONS AND THE TRANSLATIONS OF AVICENNA'S CANON OF MEDICINE Prof.Dr. Luisa María Arvide Cambra Department of Philology.University of Almería.Spain ABSTRACT One of the most outstanding names in history of Islamic science of the Middle Ages is without any doubt that of the Persian scholar Ibn Sina, Avicenna (980-1037), and his work Al-Qanun fi-l-tibb (Canon of Medicine) is one of the most representative writings of the medieval Arabic medicine. It is due to its importance that this encyclopedic book has had many editions and translations into other languages from the Middle Ages to the present day. This paper is an approach to the study of Canon of Medicine and it specifies the manuscripts, the editions and the translations existing about it. Indexing terms/Keywords Avicenna; Ibn Sina; Canon of Medicine; History of science Academic Discipline And Sub-Disciplines Medieval Islamic science; Medieval Arabic medicine; Scientific literature SUBJECT CLASSIFICATION Literature Subject Classification TYPE (METHOD/APPROACH) Historical inquiries, Literary analysis INTRODUCTION One of the most outstanding names in Arabic medical annals is that of Ibn Sina (980-1037), Avicenna, called by the Arabs Al-Shaykh al-Ra’is (The Main Sheykh) and Al-Mu´allim al-Thani (The Second Teacher, after Aristotle). Abu Ali Al-Husayn Ibn Abd Allah Ibn Sina was the son of an Isma´ili named Abdullah. Born near Bukhara, he spent his life in the eastern part of the Muslim world and was buried in Hamadan, where his grave is still shown and very visited. Being a young man he had cured the Samanid sultan of Bukhara, Nuh Ibn Al-Mansur, who reigned from 976 to 997, and he was given the privilege of using the ruler's remarkable library. Ibn Sina devoured the contents of the roal library and at the early age of twenty-one was in a position to embark on his career as a writer. This included the systematizing of the knowledge of his time (Ullmann, 1970). Some Arab sources (Ibn Al-Qifti, 1903;Ibn Khallikan, 1843) as well as the modern bibliographers list under his name a large number of works, and some of them attributed to him over two hundred titles, dealing with philosophy, medicine, geometry, astronomy, theology, philology and art (Ibn Abi Usaybi´a, 1884). Among his scientific works we can underline two titles: the Kitab al-shifa’ (Book of healing), a philosophical encyclopaedia based upon the Aristotelian tradition as modified by Neo-platonic influences and Muslim theology, and above all Al-Qanun fi-l-tibb (Canon of Medicine), which represents the final codification of Greco-Arabic medical thought (Leclec, 1876). Also, we can mention the Urjuza fi-l-tibb (Poeme of Medicine), a compendium of Canon written in verse, entitled Cantica in Latin. This last work, the Urjuza, is the summary of Avicenna medicine in poetry form (including 1326 couplets). It was translated by Gerard de Cremona in Latin and published six times in Europe from the 15th century until the 17th century. The first print of this translation along with the annotations by Ibn Rushd was published in Venice in 1485. The French translation of the mentioned work (along with Arabic text and Latin translation) were also printed and published in 1956. One of the important works of Avicenna is a book about the treatment of kidney diseases which was translated by Andrea Alpago into Latin and published in Venice in 1547. Also, the Latin translation of heart medicines under the title Medicamenta Cordialis was translated by Arnaldus de Villa Nova and published in 1482 (Brockelmann, 1889). The Arabic text of the Qānūn was published in Rome in 1593 and was therefore one of the earliest Arabic books to be printed. Translated into Latin under the supervision of Gerard of Cremona (1113/4-1187) in the 12th century, this Canon with its encyclopaedic contents, its systematic arrangement and its philosophic plan, soon worked its way into a position of pre-eminence in the medical literature of the age, displacing the works of Galen, Al-Razi and Al-Majusi, and becoming the text-book for medical education in the schools of Europe, such as Montpellier, in France, Salerno, in Italy, Louvaine, in Belgium, and many other Universities of Germany, until the 17th century as late as 1650, as well as even until the 18thth century in some institutions of higher medical education in Europe: in Padua, for example, as late as 1715 (Hamarneh, 1977).