The Canon medicinae, a compendium of medical knowledge and a guide to clinical teaching, was derived from Galenic and Hippocratic writings and infused by Avicenna with Arabic medical lore. The Canon includes detailed disquisitions on pathology, physiology, hygiene, therapeutics, and materia medica. The first three books were printed in Latin in 1472 and a complete edition appeared the following year. An encyclopedic and systematic treatise on medicine, it was the fundamental text in medieval and early Renaissance medical education. The text itself was read in the medical schools at Montpellier and Louvain as late as 1650, and Arnold C. Klebs described it as "one of the most significant intellectual phenomena of all times." Avicenna's Canonwas translated into Hebrew in 1279. This edition of Avicenna’s Canon is its first appearance in print as well as the first printing of a medical treatise in Hebrew—and the only one produced during the fifteenth century. Hebrew printing in the 15th century was restricted to Italy and the Iberian peninsula; after the expulsion from Spain in 1492, printers in Italy and Portugal produced a very small number of works. The Gunzenhauser family founded the first Hebrew press in Naples in 1486; this edition of the Canonwas one of the last Hebrew books printed in that city. Two page excerpt from a copy of Avicenna's Canon medicinae (Naples, 9 November 1491) written in Hebrew
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