Abstract
The Andalusian family of the Banū Zuhr astounded the Mediaeval world with a lineage of physicians spanning several generations. The family library served as the foundation for erudite medical research, and the manuscript tradition of the Kitāb al-Khawāṣṣ by Abū al-ʿAlā Ibn Zuhr (d. ca. 1130) offers a glimpse into the library’s shelves dedicated to medicine and natural sciences. This compilation of properties is, in fact, a collection of quotations from written sources – ranging from ancient and late antique authors to the great names of Arabic medicine in the 9th and 10th century – exceptionally accompanied by a sigla for reference. This unique feature enables to weave a broader network of manuscripts and texts, whether as fontes or loci similes, and raises methodological questions about textual transmission and the role of indirect tradition therein.
The codices in the Banū Zuhr library also became a reference point for those studying Galenic medicine in al-Andalus during the 12th and 13th century. As a case study, the manuscript tradition of Galen’s Kitāb al-Adwiya al-Mufrada (‘Book on Simple Drugs’) bears witness to an intense activity of cross-collations, note-taking, and physical circulation of books and scholars, with the Banū Zuhr copy serving as a crucial waypoint along this route.
The history of a family of Andalusian scholars, their library and its traces in extant manuscripts, and the study of the manuscript tradition of a peculiar item among the writings of the Banū Zuhr circle intertwine to define a space in which philology, paleography, and codicology equally contribute to the history of scholarly practices.
