27-04-2026, 03:45 PM
Thanks
I asked Claude to run a deep research on the manuscript to see what was known
.
Basic data.
A 442-folio paper compendium produced in or near Constantinople in the second quarter of the fifteenth century, in multiple hands. It was acquired by Luigi Ferdinando Marsili in the late seventeenth century and entered the Bologna Universitaria collection in 1712.
Description.
The Dumbarton Oaks Manuscripts Microfilm Database entry calls it a "compendium in multiple hands" of "mostly medical treatises, with some works on pseudo-sciences" and gives a folio-by-folio summary:
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The most striking single feature is f. 14v, described as a "whole-page table of symbols reminiscent of Linear B, labeled with words (ex. gr. μῆλα [apples], ὕδωρ [water], etc.), perhaps as a key to the abbreviations found later in the book."
Folio highlights (from the same source):
f. 14v — symbol catalogue with Greek-word labels
f. 51r — Theophilus De urinis with painted figure (Pinsos and Theophilus) and 21 colour-labelled urine flasks
f. 68v onward — illustrated herbal in the Italo-Byzantine Dioscoridean tradition; mandrake at f. 403v
ff. 312r and 321v — two Zodiac Men, the second attributed in the accompanying text to Ptolemy
f. 335r — concentric-circles cosmological diagram
f. 420v — Wheel of Fortune
f. 436r — full-page Solomonic Labyrinth
ff. 436v–442v — pseudo-Hermetic On the Herbs of the Twelve Zodiacal Signs and the Seven Planets; thirteen talismanic seals on f. 438r
Scholarship.
The principal published treatments are Francesca Marchetti's 2011 PhD thesis Le illustrazioni di uno Iatrosophion bizantino del XV secolo, cod. 3632 della Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna (Bologna, AMS Dottorato — access-restricted) and Petros Bouras-Vallianatos's chapter "Diagrams in Greek Medical Manuscripts" in The Diagram as Paradigm: Cross-Cultural Approaches (Dumbarton Oaks, 2022), open-access at:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Bouras-Vallianatos identifies the otherwise-unknown physician John of Aron as scribe of folios 344r–350v, with the rest of the codex in other hands. The codex is also one of seven base manuscripts for Stephen Skinner & Ioannis Marathakis, The Magical Treatise of Solomon, or Hygromanteia (Golden Hoard 2011).
A workshop "New perspectives on MS Bononiensis 3632" was held at the Bologna Universitaria on 12–13 June 2023, organised by Bouras-Vallianatos and Matteo Martelli:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Distinctive features within the Greek tradition
Per Bouras-Vallianatos 2022 and late-Palaeologan research (Claude)
Standard for late-Palaeologan multi-genre medical compilation: Hippocratic + Galenic + Theophilus uroscopy + Aktouarios + recipes + lapidary + brief astrological opuscula + magic/mantic content. Magic-medicine combination is standard, not exceptional, in this tradition (Magdalino & Mavroudi 2006).
Distinctive for BU 3632: Illustrated herbal embedded inside a multi-genre medical-magical compendium (uncommon — Greek illustrated herbals are normally standalone luxury Dioscoridean codices). Figural programme of ancient-physician portraits (rare in Greek tradition; saint-physicians belong to a separate hagiographic register). A Zodiac Man specifically attributed to Ptolemy (a singular pseudepigraphic outlier — Greek melothesia is normally anonymous or attributed to Hermes Trismegistos). Bouras-Vallianatos describes it as the most encyclopaedic surviving exemplar of the late-Palaeologan multi-genre form.
Closest siblings within the Greek tradition
Two surviving codices are the closest typological cousins:
Wellcome MS.MSL.60. Paper, 221 ff., 15th century second half, Eastern Mediterranean. Hippocratic + Galen + Theophilus + Aktouarios + Pepagomenos + Symeon Seth + lapidary + astrological diagram + multilingual plant lexicon + Hermetic foot-pain remedies. The closest single match for BU 3632's compilation profile, but lacks the illustrated herbal, the figural programme, and most of the Solomonic-magical content.
Escorial Φ.III.12. Paper, 463 ff., colophon-dated October 1432. Aktouarios full corpus + Greek uroscopy ascribed to Ibn Sīnā + Hippocratic core + Paul of Aegina + Galenic diagrams + iatromathematical diagram (f. 10r). A learned compilation; lacks illustrated herbal and overt magic.
BU 3632 is therefore not unique as a multi-genre Greek medical compilation, but is unique within the surviving record as the maximally inclusive case — the only one that combines illustrated herbal and figural physician-portrait gallery and Solomonic-magical layer alongside the standard Galenic-pharmaceutical-iatromathematical core.
I'm unable to access Marchetti's PhD thesis.. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
I asked Claude to run a deep research on the manuscript to see what was known
.
Basic data.
A 442-folio paper compendium produced in or near Constantinople in the second quarter of the fifteenth century, in multiple hands. It was acquired by Luigi Ferdinando Marsili in the late seventeenth century and entered the Bologna Universitaria collection in 1712.
Description.
The Dumbarton Oaks Manuscripts Microfilm Database entry calls it a "compendium in multiple hands" of "mostly medical treatises, with some works on pseudo-sciences" and gives a folio-by-folio summary:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
The most striking single feature is f. 14v, described as a "whole-page table of symbols reminiscent of Linear B, labeled with words (ex. gr. μῆλα [apples], ὕδωρ [water], etc.), perhaps as a key to the abbreviations found later in the book."
Folio highlights (from the same source):
f. 14v — symbol catalogue with Greek-word labels
f. 51r — Theophilus De urinis with painted figure (Pinsos and Theophilus) and 21 colour-labelled urine flasks
f. 68v onward — illustrated herbal in the Italo-Byzantine Dioscoridean tradition; mandrake at f. 403v
ff. 312r and 321v — two Zodiac Men, the second attributed in the accompanying text to Ptolemy
f. 335r — concentric-circles cosmological diagram
f. 420v — Wheel of Fortune
f. 436r — full-page Solomonic Labyrinth
ff. 436v–442v — pseudo-Hermetic On the Herbs of the Twelve Zodiacal Signs and the Seven Planets; thirteen talismanic seals on f. 438r
Scholarship.
The principal published treatments are Francesca Marchetti's 2011 PhD thesis Le illustrazioni di uno Iatrosophion bizantino del XV secolo, cod. 3632 della Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna (Bologna, AMS Dottorato — access-restricted) and Petros Bouras-Vallianatos's chapter "Diagrams in Greek Medical Manuscripts" in The Diagram as Paradigm: Cross-Cultural Approaches (Dumbarton Oaks, 2022), open-access at:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Bouras-Vallianatos identifies the otherwise-unknown physician John of Aron as scribe of folios 344r–350v, with the rest of the codex in other hands. The codex is also one of seven base manuscripts for Stephen Skinner & Ioannis Marathakis, The Magical Treatise of Solomon, or Hygromanteia (Golden Hoard 2011).
A workshop "New perspectives on MS Bononiensis 3632" was held at the Bologna Universitaria on 12–13 June 2023, organised by Bouras-Vallianatos and Matteo Martelli:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Distinctive features within the Greek tradition
Per Bouras-Vallianatos 2022 and late-Palaeologan research (Claude)
Standard for late-Palaeologan multi-genre medical compilation: Hippocratic + Galenic + Theophilus uroscopy + Aktouarios + recipes + lapidary + brief astrological opuscula + magic/mantic content. Magic-medicine combination is standard, not exceptional, in this tradition (Magdalino & Mavroudi 2006).
Distinctive for BU 3632: Illustrated herbal embedded inside a multi-genre medical-magical compendium (uncommon — Greek illustrated herbals are normally standalone luxury Dioscoridean codices). Figural programme of ancient-physician portraits (rare in Greek tradition; saint-physicians belong to a separate hagiographic register). A Zodiac Man specifically attributed to Ptolemy (a singular pseudepigraphic outlier — Greek melothesia is normally anonymous or attributed to Hermes Trismegistos). Bouras-Vallianatos describes it as the most encyclopaedic surviving exemplar of the late-Palaeologan multi-genre form.
Closest siblings within the Greek tradition
Two surviving codices are the closest typological cousins:
Wellcome MS.MSL.60. Paper, 221 ff., 15th century second half, Eastern Mediterranean. Hippocratic + Galen + Theophilus + Aktouarios + Pepagomenos + Symeon Seth + lapidary + astrological diagram + multilingual plant lexicon + Hermetic foot-pain remedies. The closest single match for BU 3632's compilation profile, but lacks the illustrated herbal, the figural programme, and most of the Solomonic-magical content.
Escorial Φ.III.12. Paper, 463 ff., colophon-dated October 1432. Aktouarios full corpus + Greek uroscopy ascribed to Ibn Sīnā + Hippocratic core + Paul of Aegina + Galenic diagrams + iatromathematical diagram (f. 10r). A learned compilation; lacks illustrated herbal and overt magic.
BU 3632 is therefore not unique as a multi-genre Greek medical compilation, but is unique within the surviving record as the maximally inclusive case — the only one that combines illustrated herbal and figural physician-portrait gallery and Solomonic-magical layer alongside the standard Galenic-pharmaceutical-iatromathematical core.
I'm unable to access Marchetti's PhD thesis.. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.