Abu´l Qasim Halaf ibn Abbas al-Zahraui: Chirurgia – Budapest Codex

A textbook on surgery with over 500 years of validity: the Arab physician Abu'l Qasim (936–1013) wrote a standard work of epoch-making impact. At the same time, its 12th-century Latin translation by Gerardus Cremonensis (around 1114–1187) combines the medicine of ancient Greece and the Arabic medical tradition with that of the European Middle Ages. Many of the achievements of ancient philosophers, natural scientists and especially physicians had been lost on the way to the Christian Middle Ages. They had to be passed on by Arab scholars, who in some cases considerably expanded the state of knowledge, especially in medicine. One of the most beautiful manuscripts of this influential text is kept in the Budapest University Library. Adorned with 269 illuminations, the codex not only impresses with its captivating book decoration, but also bears witness to various intercultural entanglements. Originating in Bologna, the manuscript came to the Bibliotheca Corviniana via two Italian early humanists with connections to the Hungarian royal court. During the turmoil of the Ottoman conquests of Budapest in the 16th century, the manuscript was taken to Constantinople as spoils of war. However, the manuscript finally returned to Budapest in 1877 as a gift from the Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II (1842–1918).