Kitāb-i Ḥashāyish / کتاب حشايش
This stunning & valuable manuscript is a seventeenth-century illustrated herbal featuring detailed descriptions of the physical characteristics and medicinal properties of many plants, trees, minerals, and animal-derived substances. The manuscript is incomplete, with bifolia and folia from portions of Discourses 1 through 5 arranged non-sequentially and extensively paginated in pencil. The text is complemented by numerous botanical illustrations executed in watercolor. This herbal reflects early modern Persian materia medica knowledge, preserving Greek and Roman medical traditions adapted for the region.
Manuscript: Oversize LJS 278, Kitāb-i Ḥashāyish / کتاب حشايش
Date: 17th century (possibly AH 1054 / 1645 CE)
Language: Persian
Place of Origin: Possibly Iran
Material: Paper
Extent: 172 leaves; 400 by 260 millimeters
Script: Nastaʿlīq in black ink, pointed
Binding: Disbound; leaves are loose and paginated out of order, with extensive repairs on edges and corners
Scholarly Notes:
The manuscript is a valuable witness to Persian botanical and medical knowledge in the early modern period, illustrating the continuity and adaptation of Greco-Roman medical traditions through Persian scholarship. The disbound and out-of-order folios complicate study but also offer insight into manuscript conservation and use. Its provenance, linked to prominent collectors, highlights the manuscript’s significance in Western collections of Islamic medical and botanical works.
Physical Features:
The text is written in up to fifteen long lines per page, with text blocks varying to accommodate detailed illustrations. Pages are ruled in drypoint. Modern pencil foliation is generally in the lower margin, with numbering irregular due to the disbound condition. Many leaves have been repaired at edges and corners, indicating significant conservation efforts.
Provenance:
The manuscript was formerly owned by British scholar and collector Simon Digby (1932–2010). It was sold by Digby to Sam Fogg Ltd. in London, then acquired by Lawrence J. Schoenberg in November 1998. The manuscript was deposited by Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle in 2011 and gifted by Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg in 2016. It is currently held at the University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.
