Isaac Israeli was born in Egypt and studied widely in natural history, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine. He settled in Kairwan, Tunisia, where he served as court physician to the caliph and wrote several esteemed medical and philosphical works in Arabic. Many of the medical treatises, including On Fevers, were translated into Latin by the Benedictine monk Constantine the African in the 11th century. Thereafter, the authorship of Israeli’s medical works was attributed to Constantine; their true origin was not discovered until the middle of the 16th century.This illuminated initial probably depicts Israeli teaching or lecturing. This manuscript tract on the treatment of fever was written in Montpellier, France, in the middle of the thirteenth century. The manuscript is one of the oldest in the Countway Library and also the first item acquired for the Hyams Collection. Illuminated figure initial of the author from Isaac Israeli's De Febribus
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Notes:
Purchased for the Solomon M. Hyams Collection of the Boston Medical Library, 1930
