Fragments of Alchemy from a Cairene Synagogue: Context, Codicology, and Contents of the Alchemical Corpus of the Cairo Genizah.

This article presents the results of a survey and a first assessment of the corpus of alchemical manuscripts retrieved from the Cairo Genizah, a storage room mainly intended for sacred writings that is attached to the Ben Ezra synagogue of Old Cairo. The alchemical manuscripts are described in their codicological and palaeographic features; their content is analysed in the context of the medieval production of alchemical texts in the surrounding Islamic world. The alchemical corpus of the Genizah represents a unique and widely unstudied source for our understanding of the relationship between Jews and alchemy in the medieval Mediterranean World.

The Voynich manuscript: Symbol roles revisited.

In this article, we employ simple descriptive methods in order to explore the peculiar behavior of the symbols in the Voynich Manuscript. Such an analysis reveals a group of symbols which are further analyzed for the possibility of being compounds (or ligatures), using a specifically developed method. The results suggest the possibility that the alphabet of the manuscript is a lot smaller, and steganographic type of encoding is proposed to explain the newly revealed properties.

Decoding the biological information contained in two ancient Slavonic parchment codices: an added historical value.

This study provides an example in the emerging field of biocodicology showing how metagenomics can help answer relevant questions that may contribute to a better understanding of the history of ancient manuscripts. To this end, two Slavonic codices dating from the 11th century were investigated through shotgun metagenomics. Endogenous DNA enabled to infer the animal origin of the skins used in the manufacture of the two codices, while nucleic sequences recovered from viruses were investigated for the first time in this material, opening up new possibilities in the field of biocodicology. In addition, the microbiomes colonizing the surface of the parchments served to determine their conservation status and their latent risk of deterioration. The saline environment provided by the parchments selected halophilic and halotolerant microorganisms, which are known to be responsible for the biodegradation of parchment. Species of Nocardiopsis, Gracilibacillus and Saccharopolyspora, but also members of the Aspergillaceae family were detected in this study, all possessing enzymatic capabilities for the biodeterioration of this material. Finally, a relative abundance of microorganisms originating from the human skin microbiome were identified, most probably related to the intensive manipulation of the manuscripts throughout the centuries, which should be taken with caution as they can be potential pathogens.

[Nizeivels Miez da Madaschinnas per la Bieschco d'Armontif et porcs: A manuscript from 1748 on veterinary medicine]. / Nizeivels Miez da Madaschinnas per la Bieschco d'Armontif et porcs: Eine tierheilkundliche Schrift aus dem Jahr 1748.

INTRODUCTION: A manuscript from 1748 in Rhaeto-Romanic language is discussed. It's an unfinished translation of a publication in German language from 1715 which contains elements from the standard work on household and agriculture by Johannes Coler, 1645. By comparing the manuscript with 15 contemporary publications and manuscripts from Switzerland, textual similarities were found in three publications. The manuscript contains 62 therapy instructions for cattle diseases and 7 for pig diseases. Remedies of plant origin, food of animal origin and faeces are applied. Various interventions lead to painful injuries of the animals. Most therapies have to be considered as irrational.

INTRODUCTION: On présente un manuscrit en langue romanche datant de l'année 1748. Il s'agit d'une traduction inachevée d'une publication en allemand de 1715. Il contient des éléments de l'ouvrage standard de Johannes Coler, 1645, consacré à la gestion du ménage et à l'agriculture. Une comparaison avec 15 publications et manuscrits contemporains de Suisse montre dans trois publications des similitudes textuelles. Le texte contient 62 instructions thérapeutiques pour les maladies des bovins et sept pour les maladies des porcs. Des remèdes d'origine végétale, des aliments d'origine animale et des matières fécales sont utilisés. Diverses procédures entraînent des blessures douloureuses chez les animaux et de nombreux traitements doivent être décrits comme irrationnels.

Visiting Newton's atelier before the Principia, 1679-1684.

The worksheets that presumably contained Newton's early development of the fundamental concepts in his Principia have been lost. A plausible reconstruction of this development is presented based on Newton's exchange of letters with Robert Hooke in 1679, with Edmund Halley in 1686, and on some clues in the diagram associated with Proposition 1 in Book 1 of the Principia that have been ignored in the past. A graphical construction associated with this proposition leads to a rapidly convergent method to obtain orbits for central forces, which elucidates how Newton may have have been led to formulate some of his most fundamental propositions in the Principia.

Missionaries, measles, and manuscripts: revisiting the Whitman tragedy.

The missionaries Marcus Whitman, a doctor, and Narcissa Whitman, his wife, and twelve other members of the Waiilatpu Mission were murdered in November 1847 by a small contingent of the Cayuse Indians in the Oregon Territory. The murders became known as the "Whitman Massacre." The authors examine the historical record, including archived correspondence held at the Yale University Libraries and elsewhere, for evidence of what motivated the killings and demonstrate that there were two valid perspectives, Cayuse and white. Hence, the event is better termed the "Whitman Tragedy." A crucial component, a highly lethal measles epidemic, has been called the spark that lit the fuse of the tragedy.

Revisiting Avicenna's (ad 980-1037) Anatomical Concepts of the Musculoskeletal and Peripheral Nervous Systems in the Canon of Medicine

Avicenna, as he is known in the West, was a famous Persian Muslim physician and influential philosopher-scientist of the medieval Islamic world. He wrote and compiled the Canon of Medicine text, a book which was adopted as the main text of medicine at the most Persian and Western universities. The book consists of basic medical sciences, applied clinical sciences and pharmacology. In the current study, we present an analysis of the anatomy of the musculoskeletal and peripheral nervous systems as viewed by Avicenna in the Canon of Medicine, and compare them with the relevant modern literature.

The Survival of the Frater Medicus? English Friars and Alchemy, ca. 1370-ca. 1425.

This essay reinserts friars into the story of alchemy and medicine in late medieval England. Much of the evidence for the activity of friars, mostly Franciscans, is to be found in a Latin text compiled in 1416-1425, the Tabula medicine. Here friars appear as sources for remedies, and a significant number of these remedies are alchemical. The quintessence found in the writings of John of Rupescissa is used for a variety of medical complaints. Some of the alchemical remedies are selected for closer examination here. These include distillations of human blood which are recommended by brother Robert Winstanton for use in surgery, either to knit flesh together or to cut through it. Natural balsam was in very short supply in Western Europe, though it served as a panacea for multiple ailments. The friars offer a number of different recipes to make artificial balsam, ranging from comparatively simple distillations through to the use of multiple fractional distillations to produce the finest of all balsams. The friars found that distilled waters made with herbs were more effective than herbal simples without distillation in the treatment of many different complaints.

[An Interpretation of the bamboo slips of acupuncture prescriptions excavated from the Han Dynasty Tomb at Laoguanshan].

The bamboo slips of acupuncture prescriptions unearthed from the Han Dynasty Tomb at Laoguanshan include both theoretical elaborations and formulae. Specifications for diagnosis and treatment, standards for needles and a variety of acupuncture techniques are discussed. The 40 acupuncture prescriptions recorded are based on presupposed summaries of theory and experience, rather than empirical formulae. Among them, 28 have needling sites that are maishu (vessel points), with proper names and specific locations. The names of these maishu adopt the pattern of 'the name of the site + the name of one of the three yin and three yang meridians'. Needling numbers are indicated for the majority of the sites of acupuncture stimulation, no matter whether for maishu or for sites at pathological areas. These statements fully embody the distinct characteristics of Bianque acupuncture.

Medical and neuropsychiatric phenomena depicted in two Spanish medieval texts of Marian miracles.

In the history of Christianity, veneration of the Virgin Mary reached its greatest intensity in the XIII century. Her perceived impact on daily life was tremendous and not surprisingly this extended to the spheres of disease and healing. The purpose of this study is to compare the medical and neuropsychiatric findings in two XIII century Spanish texts of Marian miracles, both examples of the popular Catholicism (vs. official catholic doctrine). We analyzed the medical and neuropsychiatric events in the Cantigas de Santa Maria (Canticles of St. Mary, CSM), composed at the court of Alfonso X and the Milagros de Nuestra Señora (The Miracles of Our Lady, MNS), written by Gonzalo de Berceo. Among the 25 miracles reported in the MNS, medically relevant facts were addressed in 19 miracles with a total of 23 recorded events (including resurrection or escape from death in five) and demonic possession in three (one with witchcraft/deicide). The most common medical subjects were ergotism, obstetric-gynecological, sudden death, intellectual disability/illiteracy, encephalopathy/alcohol intoxication, suicide (with self-mutilation/castration), infanticide, infections, and absence of body decomposition after death. The 427 canticles in the CSM contain 270 medically relevant facts. Neuropsychiatric conditions were alluded to in 98 songs. Blindness and dystonia/weakness/deformities were the most common phenomena. Illuminations detailed many of the medical facts in the CSM, but not in the MNS. Medically relevant facts were described in both texts, but with more details in the CSM. Neurological conditions were more often described in the CSM, psychiatric conditions in the MNS.

Astronomy and calendar reform at the curia of Pope Clement VI: a new source.

The article introduces a previously unknown fourteenth-century treatise on computus and calendrical astronomy entitled Expositio kalendarii novi, whose author proposed elaborate solutions to the technical flaws inherent in the calendar used by the Roman Church. An analysis of verbal parallels to other contemporary works on the same topic makes it possible to establish that the Expositio was produced in the context of a calendar reform initiative led by Pope Clement VI in 1344/45 and that this anonymous text is probably identical to a 'great and laborious work' on the calendar that the monk Johannes de Termis prepared for the pope around this time. Its author strove to make an original contribution by extracting new astronomical parameters from both ancient and contemporary data, which made him arrive at an estimate of the length of the tropical year that was independent of the then-current Alfonsine Tables. With its suggestion to remove eleven days from the Julian calendar and to correct the calendar through modified leap-year rhythms and periodically adjusted sequences of lunar epacts, the proposal enshrined in the Expositio exhibits some remarkable similarities to the Gregorian reform of the calendar promulgated in 1582. Although its influence on the latter must remain a matter of speculation, the newly discovered text sheds a revealing light on the history of medieval calendar reform debates and on the mathematical sciences practiced at the Avignon court of Clement VI.

Identification of Proteinaceous Binders in Ancient Tripitaka by the Use of an Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay.

Proteinaceous materials, such as ovabumin and collagen, were commonly used as binding media, and as adhesives and protective coatings. However, the identification of ancient proteinaceous binders is a great challenge for archaeologists, due to their limited sample size, complex combinations of various ingredients and reduced availability of the binder during the process of protein degradation. In this paper, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) provides to be a particularly promising method for the detection of proteinaceous binding materials in ancient relics. The present work focused on the specific identification of proteins in archaeological binders, which was brushed on the Tripitaka. Two samples, the adhesion area (S1) and the ink area (S2), were tested by ELISA. The results showed that both S1 and S2 reacted positively when treated with an anti-collagen-I antibody. It proved the existence of proteinaceous binders in Ancient Tripitaka, and the percentage of collagen in S1 and S2 was 61.44 and 15.4%, respectively. Compared with other conventional techniques, ELISA has advantages of high specificity, sensitivity, rapidity and low cost, making it especially suitable for the protein detection in the archaeological field.