Geniza Lab

Bifolium from a Ladino transcription of a medical work by the physician (el diskreto sabio) Arnau de Villanova. Information from http://www.investigacion.cchs.csic.es/judeo-arabe/sites/investigacion.cchs.csic.es.judeo-arabe/files/Genizah-Al-Andalus.pdf.

Possibly a medical text, mentioning illnesses. Very dark and damaged

Medical text dealing with lincti and ointments. CUDL

Medical prescription for a linctus containing opium. (Information from Goitein's index card and CUDL)

Medical treatise containing instructions for the preparation of collyria (shiyāf). Information from CUDL.

Medical text concerning diseases of the joints, with list of simples (cudl)

Medical prescription

Fragment from a Judaeo-Arabic book on hemerology.

Medical. Materia medica. List of medical substances and quantities (see Isaacs, Catalogue) Judeo-Arabic. AA

Medical Medical text on medicine for the stomach and indigestion (from CUDL).

Medical. From a work on materia medica, listing simple medicaments, their function and use (from CUDL).

Medical. Medical prescription (from CUDL).

Medical recipe (information from Isaacs Catalogue)

12 pages of astrological/medical prognostications—horoscopes for male and female. E.g., "Mazal sarṭan lineqeva. La ke su mazal es en sartan sera fermosa de forma y gorda de kuerpo y de mucha karne y buenos ojos y buena su voz y alta de kuerpo y buen kabello y ciegara de sus ojos. Y de año y medio adolecera y terna (=tendrá) mucha fazienda y engrandecera a sus parientes y ayudara a ellos y se alegrara kon ellos y no terna mala fama. Es angustiada kada hora por muchos celos de la fermosura y de la fazienda y la tacharan sus parientes u otros y su marido la kera (=querrá) bien en su koraxon y adolecera de cinco anos y de trenta y ocho y de kuarenta y nueve y de 64 y de ochenta y kuatro. Morira de enfermedad de kalientura y tiene senial en sus tetas y en sus manos y en su vientre y en su kojenturas y en su kaveza ferida." (Information from http://www.investigacion.cchs.csic.es/judeo-arabe/sites/investigacion.cchs.csic.es.judeo-arabe/files/Genizah-Al-Andalus.pdf.)

Recto: three recipes of folk remedies in Ladino, integrating magical elements. The ingredients include turpentine and organic foodstuffs like sardines. Drawn at the bottom of recto are magical characters, the Tetragrammaton, pentagrams and the name of the angel Sama’el. Verso: scribal exercise with formulae for book endings, in which the scribe makes his writing-implement talk in the first person. Information from CUDL.

Leaves from a 17th-century booklet of popular medicine in Ladino. Information from CUDL.

Leaves from Maimonides' Judaeo-Arabic draft of his Arabic treatise on sexual intercourse, commissioned by the Ayyubid prince Taqī al-Dīn Umar. Maimonides prescribes various concoctions to increase Taqi al-Din Umar’s vigour and recommends a diet that avoids ‘cooling’ foods (long pepper, galanga, ginger, aristolochia, cinnamon, anise, clove, mace, and nutmeg are recommended but lentils, vetch, and cold vegetables such as cucumber, donkey cucumber, melons, garden orach, spinach and especially lettuce are to be avoided). A drink of iron water boiled with the ox tongue herb, lemon peel, beaten carnation, wine and honey, is suggested. He also advises moderation, as the sexual act itself was ‘enfeebling’. (Information from CUDL.)

Instructions for the preparation of drugs (booklet of recipes), mentioning pure rose water, wax (Info from FGP). On verso few named of physicians and paramedics, probably who will use this prescription.

Medical recipe, including list of spices, including sesame and pepper.

Few medicinal herbs are mentioned: custus, myrrh, Tragacanth, Arar tree, Storax