Pharmacopoea Persica ex idiomate Persico in Latinum conversa = Tafsīr-i murakkabāt-i qarābādīn-i pārsī (Persian Pharmacopeia translated into Latin)

Sala del Dottorato, VIII-4-41

Ange de Saint-Joseph (1636-1697), a discalced Carmelite who travelled as a missionary in Arabia and Persia, translated the Persian Muzaffar ibn Muhammad al-Husayn’s (d. 1556) treaty on medicaments. The stamps on the frontispiece are a proof that the volume, as also the Antidotario Romano (Roman Book of Antidotes), was previously on display at the library of the Franciscan convent of Monteripido, documenting the traditional interest for medical practices shown by all religious orders.

The interest shown for Islamic medicine had been very strong since the late Middle Ages and that for pharmacology in particular lasted until the XVII Century. Arabian medical practitioners were among the first to write pharmacopeia treatises, that is to say recipe books indicating the exact dosages to be used for the various preparations and recommending herbs and exotic ingredients that were alien to the common tradition of the times. In particular, sugar is worth mentioning, as it was obtained from sugar cane coming from the Eastern Indian areas. Its use was to revolutionize and transform pharmaceutical techniques, even creating a new profession, that of the “syrup (scharab) maker”. Sugar, having arrived in the West thanks to the Arabs and being quite expensive, was initially used only by apothecaries and, from the XIV Century, also as a precious condiment in place of honey, therefore becoming a staple, over the course of time, of the sweet-and-sour typical taste of the foods consumed in the Middle Ages as well as those of the Renaissance period.

The ambiguous norms regarding wine are also of particular interest. Wine was traditionally considered as a health remedy but it was strictly forbidden by the Quran. Some medical practitioners therefore abstained from prescribing it, while others, with stronger ties to the classical tradition, left the decision to the faqìh, a jurist who could either grant or deny this permission.