Tacuinum Sanitatis in Medicina

A medical housebook with 206 miniatures

The Tacuinum sanitatis in medicina (”Overview of Medicine in Tabular Form”) is among the most beautifully and richly decorated manuscripts in the Austrian National Library. This lavishly illustrated medical handbook was conceived for a lay public, more precisely for members of the high nobility or wealthy patrician families, who could afford and read such an expensive "reference work" for household management, health care and cure.
This type of book goes back to an Arab source written by the Christian physician Ibn Butlan in the 11th century, known as Taqwim es-sihha. The Arab art and practice of healing, which preserved a great amount of ancient knowledge, decisively influenced Western medicine in the Middle Ages and had a great reputation. The Latin translation, which made the text accessible to the educated of the medieval western world in the first place, was widely known judging from the large number of surviving manuscripts.
While the famous work initially consisted only of synoptic tables without any illumination, from the 14th century onwards it was richly furnished with large images, so that the texts were shortened to a few lines. One of the oldest and certainly also finest manuscripts of this kind is the Tacuinum presented here, which depicts on 206 colorful full-page miniatures everything that was connected with human health and well-being at the time the original was written.

A Testimony to Famous Oriental Cure

"Tacuinum" is the Latinized form of the Arab word "Taqwim", which remained untranslated. Since the work was widely read, especially in Italy, the word "Tacuinum" was also adopted into the Italian language: "Tacuino" in Italian today means something like "notebook".
The very well-known medieval physician Ibn Butlan († c. 1065), whose full name was Abū l-Ḥasan al-Muḫtār bin al-Ḥasan bin ʿAbdūn bin Saʿdūn bin Buṭlān, wrote the extensive Taqwim es-sihha in the 11th century, among several other medical works, and acquired great fame. In the 13th century, this work, consisting of synoptic tables without illustrations, was probably translated into Latin at the court of King Manfred of Sicily, whereupon it became increasingly widespread in Latin Europe and eventually had a long-lasting influence on Western medicine.

A Sumptuous Monument to Book Illumination

The work is not only important for historically interested physicians and pharmacists, but is also a comprehensive and fascinating object of extensive study for bibliophiles and researchers of book illumination because of its more than 200 miniatures. In addition, its depictions display an evocative image of old Italian culture as well as many aspects of daily life, making it also a rich source of cultural history.
The Tacuinum was probably commissioned by Giangaleazzo Visconti (1351–1402) at the end of the 14th century in the workshop of his favorite artist Giovannino de' Grassi (1340s–1398). The coat of arms on fol. 3v suggests that the luxurious manuscript was a political gift to a member of the Speroni family from Padua, who frequented the court of Milan after Giangaleazzo's conquest of Verona. It was made by two talented painters whose naturalism and powers of observation are particularly surprising. The chosen colors are very strong and give the miniatures a charming freshness and liveliness.

A Medical Picture Book

The 206 full-page miniatures depict numerous materiae medicae, which included not only plants, animals, foods, and processed medicines, but also winds, seasons, and other environmental phenomena such as emotions and leisure activities. Their effects on the human organism are described on the basis of ancient medical teachings. So, in a few lines under each image, the benefits and harms of the respective materia medica for differently constituted humans are succinctly explained.
Thus the Tacuinum constitutes a medical picture book, which, although in the tradition of ancient herbals, belongs with its dominating miniatures to a new genre of medical codices. The special feature of the pictorial representations is that the individual materiae medicae are not depicted alone, but, as in the text, are centered on the human being. Man is alwayss shown dealing with the respective plants, animals and other things. However, the depiction did not aim at an exact recognizability or precise illustration of the advice described in the text with regard to preparation and ingestion. Rather, naturalistic genre scenes emerge, which, with their rich stock of utensils, demonstrate much of the habits and living conditions of citizens of a late medieval Italian city and presented the originally addressed aristocratic viewers an idealized image of their realm.
In addition to its great importance for the history of civilization, the Tacuinum is fascinating contemporary readers as it provides an opportunity to compare modern natural cures and healthy living practices with those used nearly 600 years ago.