paro Osello Padovano, fe.-Gaspar Patavinus, f.-Gaspar P. F.-Gasp. F.-G. O. F.G. A. P. F. and otherwise. He varied likewise his monogram, which is generally formed of G A P, GAS P, and G P F.

Gaspar imitated the style and copied several of the prints of Giorgio Ghisi called | Mantovano, but he never equalled that engraver. His principal work is a folio volume containing sixty-six portraits of the house of Austria, after Francesco Terzi of Bergamo, painter to the Emperor Maximilian II. The portraits are full length in rich costumes, and are ornamented with fanciful borders. He has in this work, says Strutt, "changed his manner; and something more of the style of the Sadelers appears in it. The figures are very neat, but stiff, yet well proportioned, and possess much merit."

Heineken notices a CESAR AB AVIBUS, who was likewise an engraver and a native of Padua, and signed himself Cæsar Patavinus; but Heineken was not acquainted with any of his works. He lived in the sixteenth century. (Heineken, Dictionnaire des Artistes, &c.; Strutt, Dictionary of Engravers; Bartsch, Peintre Graveur; Brulliot, Dictionnaire des Monogrammes, &c.)

R. N. W. AVICENNA, AVICENA, AVISENNA, are the corrupt Latinized forms of the name of the most celebrated of the Arabic physicians, whose complete appellation, as given by Ibn Abí Ossaybi'ah, was Abú 'Ali Alhuseyn Ibn 'Abdillah Ibnu-l-huseyn Ibn 'Ali Ibn Síná, to which are commonly added by his Arabian biographers the surnames Ashshaikh, the "doctor," Ar-raís, the "chief." The latter title was given him either, as M. de Slane conjectures, in the notes to his translation of Ïbn Khallikán's "Biographical Dictionary," in his official capacity as vizír, or as 'ámil, "agent," or "collector;" | or on account of his celebrity as a physician (as he is frequently called in modern works "the prince of the Arabian physicians"); or perhaps more probably as being an abbreviation of the title "Raís 'ala-l-attebbá," or Chief of the Physicians," an Arabic dignity synonymous apparently with the Latin “Archiater." Casiri says that the name Avicenna is derived from Afshena, the place of his birth; but the word is evidently a corruption of Ibn Síná, formed in the same manner as Avempace, Avenzoar, and Averroës. As in the case of Hippocrates and Galen, the accounts of his life have been disguised by strange geographical and chronological errors, and still stranger fictions, which are not worth notice here, but may easily be found by looking at some of the works referred to by the authors quoted at the end of this article. The shortest way of refuting them will be by the following account, which is almost entirely taken from ancient and original authorities.

According to Ibn Khallikán, Avicenna was born in the month of Safar, A.H. 370 (August or September, A.D. 980). His father was a native of Balkh, but he removed from that city to Bokhara, in the time of the Amír Nuh Ibn Mansur As-sámání, one of the Samanian princes of Khorásán, A.H. 366-387 (A.D. 976-7-997). Having displayed great abilities as an 'ámil, or tax-gatherer, he was appointed to fill that office in a town called Kharmatin, called by Ibn Khallikán one of the government estates (dia) in the dependencies of Bokhára, and a place of great antiquity. It was there that Abú 'Ali and his brother Mahmud were born: their mother Sattára was a native of Afshena, a village near Kharmatin. They afterwards went to Bokhára, and Abú 'Ali then travelled abroad to study the sciences. The account which Avicenna has left us of his early studies, in his short autobiography, is interesting, as it gives us some idea of the different branches of study considered necessary among the ancient Moslems, and the order in which they succeeded each other. At the age of ten years he was a perfect master of the Korán and general literature, and had attained a certain degree of information in dogmatic theology, the Indian calculus (or arithmetic), and algebra. He then studied Porphyry's "Isagoge," or Introduction to the Categories of Aristotle, the Elements of Euclid, and Ptolemy's "Mathematical Syntaxis," commonly called "Almagest," in which he is said to have surpassed his tutor, and to have explained to him several difficulties which he had not before understood. He then studied jurisprudence, and exercised himself in acquiring the seven different systems followed in reading the Korán, called by the Arabians “the seven readings of the Korán,” making learned researches and holding discussions. He next directed his labours to natural philosophy, divinity, and other sciences, reading the texts with the commentaries. When he was sixteen years old, he felt an inclination to learn medicine, and studied works on that subject; he also treated patients, not for emolument, but for instruction. He then gave another year and a half to the study of logic and other branches of philosophy. Aristotle's Metaphysics he says he read over forty times, till he knew the book by heart, but did not understand it till he met by chance with the Commentary of Abú Nasr Al-fárábí. During the period of his studies he says he never slept an entire night, nor passed one without dreaming of the employments of the day; and whenever he met with an obscure point, he used to perform a total ablution, and proceed to the great mosque to pray for Divine assistance. Before he had reached his eighteenth year he had finished the study of all these sciences; and the remark he makes in after life is, that at that early age his knowledge was more

66

and wanderings, which seem to have been oc- excoriation of the intestines, and also an epicasioned in a great measure by the unsettled leptic fit, to relieve which he ordered to be state of public affairs in those countries, were put into the mixture which he employed for not yet over; for the amír's troops revolted his injections one third of a drachm of a drug against him, pillaged his house, arrested him, which is commonly translated parsley seed, and required Shamsu-d-daula to put him to but which Sprengel supposes to signify long death. This, however, the amír refused to do; pepper, as agreeing better with the effect and Avicenna effected his escape, and remained produced. The physician who attended him concealed for forty days in the house of one put in five drachms, and the result was that of his friends. In the meantime the prince the dysentery was increased by the acrid nahad another violent attack of colic, which ture of the drug. A great quantity of opium obliged him again to have recourse to the was also thrown into one of his medicines by medical skill of Avicenna, who was accord- one of his slaves, who had embezzled a sum ingly recalled, and reappointed vizír, after of money, and was afraid of being punished having once more restored the amír to health. by his master if he recovered. From the Avicenna continued his studies, and wrote commencement of his illness he continued to several works on medical and other subjects, support the burden of business, and gave besides which he had pupils with whom he read public audiences from time to time; he also every evening, and whom he afterwards enter- entirely neglected the necessary regimen, so tained with music and other amusements. that for some weeks he alternately improved Shamsu-d-daula was a third time attacked and relapsed. At this period Aláu-d-daula with colic, as he was marching against the left Ispahan for Hamadán, and took Avicenna Amir Bahau-d-daula, and, as he neglected with him. During the journey the colic reAvicenna's directions both as to regimen turned, and on arriving at the latter place and medicines, the disease at last proved his strength was almost totally prostrated. fatal. His son and successor, Táju-d-daula, He perceived himself that his end was aprefused to continue Avicenna in the office proaching, discontinued the further use of of vizír; upon which he wrote privately medical applications, and said, “The director to the Amir 'Aláu-d-daula Abú Ja'far Ibn which is in my body is unable to control it Kakúyeh, who had been appointed governor any longer, nor can any treatment now avail." of Ispahan by the mother of Majdu-d-daula, | He then made his ablutions, turned himself offering him his services, and begging per- | to God, gave away his wealth in alms to the mission to come to his court. His corre- poor, and redressed the grievances of all spondence was discovered by the prince, who those whom he could recollect to have inimmediately seized him and put him in pri-jured. He also manumitted his mamluks, son, where he remained four months. This and read through the Korán once every three was probably in the year 414 (A.D. 1023-24), days, till at length an end was put to his as 'Alau-d-daula conquered Hamadán in that troubled and eventful life on a Friday in the year, which event took place while Avicenna month of Ramadan, A.H. 428 (June, or July, was in confinement. At length he made his A.D. 1037), at the age of fifty-eight lunar escape from Hamadán in the dress of a sufi, years and eight months, or fifty-six solar accompanied by his brother Mahmud, his years and ten months. faithful friend Abú 'Obeydah Al-jausjání, and two slaves, and reached Ispahan in safety. He was very favourably received by the amir, who furnished him with a house, money, and everything necessary for his comfort; and here, if the above date be correct (which is not quite certain, as 'Alau-ddaula made several expeditions to Hamadán), he passed the last fourteen years of his life, in greater quiet and prosperity than had ever fallen to his lot before. He employed himself in composing works, not only on medicine, but also on logic, geometry, astronomy, grammar, and metaphysics; and is said to have lived in great pomp and splendour. His constitution was naturally strong, but he had weakened it by indulging to excess in wine and sexual enjoyment; and as he was never careful of his health, he was seized with an attack of colic. It happened that, just at the same time, he had to make a journey with 'Alaud-daula; and therefore, in order to cure himself quickly, he took eight injections in one day. This brought on a dysentery, with

|

Such is probably a tolerably correct outline of the life of this remarkable man, who, however, is perhaps less celebrated for his personal qualities, than for the vast influence which his writings possessed for more than five hundred years, together with an absolute authority in all matters of medical science scarcely exceeded by that of Aristotle and Galen. In his personal character there seems to be little to admire except his energy and indefatigable activity. His intellectual character was differently estimated even by his Arabian biographers: some called him the prodigy of his age, while others said that he was blind in philosophy and only one-eyed in medicine. His writings, which were very numerous, amounted to more than a hundred, and consisted of treatises on medicine, logic, metaphysics, theology, mathematics, geometry, zoology, music, &c., besides some commentaries on part of Aristotle's works, and some poems on different subjects. Only those will be mentioned here which have been published

either in the original Arabic or in a trans- | title-page is from Hain's Repert. Bibl.:— lation. "Liber Canonis primus quem princeps Abohali Abiusceni de Medicina edidit. Translatus a Magistro Gerhardo Cremonensi in

Avicenna is chiefly known as a physician, and of his medical works the most celebrated is that entitled "Kitábu-l-kánuni-fi-t-tibbi" | Toleto ab Arabico in Latinum." At the end ("The Book of the Canon of Medicine"). This is one of the few Arabic medical works that have been published in the original language; an edition in that language having appeared at Rome in 1593, in three thin folio volumes, which are commonly bound together in one. It contains merely the Arabic text, without translation, notes, or preface; and is printed from a manuscript in the library at Florence, marked No. 215 in Assemani's Catalogue. The type is good, and the book is not very scarce. The third volume contains a work on logic, physics, and metaphysics. This is the only complete Arabic edition of the Canon, but parts of it have been published at various times. The beginning of the second book was edited by Peter Kirstenius, with notes and a Latin translation, and was printed with his own Arabic types at Breslau, 1609, fol.; it is not very well spoken off. An extract from the fourth book was published at Augsburg, 1674, 4to., by G. H. Welsch, with the title "Exercitatio de Vena Medinensi, ad Mentem Ebusinæ, sive de Dracunculis Veterum, &c." It contains only two short chapters of the Arabic text, with a double Latin version, and a very copious commentary, which displays immense learning. Sprengel has inserted a short extract from the first book, with a German translation and a few notes, in the third part of his "Beiträge zur Geschichte der Medicin," Halle, 1794-96, 8vo. A very short passage from the third book was published by J. S. Wittich, 1803, 8vo., with the title "Interpretatio Loci Arabici ex Opere Avicennæ de Superfœtatione," with a Latin translation and commentary; it is, however, worth little or nothing. (Schnurrer, Biblioth. Arab. $$ 393-96.) The Canon has been translated into Hebrew, and exists in MS. in several European libraries. A Hebrew version, supposed to be by Rabbi Nathan Amathi, was published at Naples in three small folio volumes, in 1491. It is printed in double columns, in rather an indistinct type, and contains nothing but the Canon: it is said to be very scarce. (De Rossi, Annal. Hebræo-Typogr. Sec. XV., p. 86.) The Latin editions are very numerous, no less than fourteen having been published (according to Choulant, Handbuch, &c.), before the end of the fifteenth century, thirteen in the sixteenth century, only two in the seventeenth, and none since that time. The earliest translation was made by Gerardus of Cremona, and was first published in folio, without place or date (but, as is supposed, by J. Mentelin, at Strassburg), in black letter, with two columns in a page. The following

of the work is the following colophon :"Canonis liber quintus Auicene qui est et antidotarium ejus finit." Perhaps the best and most complete edition is that which was published at Venice by the Juntas, in 1595, fol. in two vols. It contains:-a letter of Nicholas Massa giving an account of Avicenna, translated by Fadella of Damascus from the Arabic of Abú 'Obeydah Al-jausjání, whose name is corrupted into Sorsanus; Tabulæ Isagogicæ in Universam Medicinam, ex arte Humain, id est Joannitii Arabis," ("A Tabular View of Medicine, compiled from the Isagoge of Honain Ibn Ishak, commonly called Joannitius,") by Fabius Paulinus; "Economiæ Librorum Canonis Avicennæ," ("A Tabular View of the Contents of the Canon,") by Fabius Paulinus; Avicenna's Canon, translated by Gerardus of Cremona, with the corrections of Andreas Alpagus, and notes by Joannes Costæus and Joannes Paulus Mongius; a short treatise "De Viribus Cordis," or "De Medicinis Cordialibus" ("On the Functions of the | Heart," or "On Cordial Medicines"), translated by Arnaldus de Villanova; another, " De Removendis Nocumentis quæ accidunt in Regimine Sanitatis" ("On removing evils connected with Regimen"); a third, “De Syrupo Acetoso" ("On Oxymel"), both translated by Andreas Alpagus; and the "Cantica," or poem on medicine, translated by Armegandus Blasius; two glossaries of Arabic words, one by Gerardus of Cremona, and the other by Andreas Alpagus; and, lastly, a tolerably complete Index of the matter contained both in the text and in the notes. An unfinished but very valuable edition was begun at Louvain, 1658, fol., by Vop. Fort. Plempius, who was pronounced by the late M. de Sacy to be the only one of the translators of the Arabic physicians who was really equal to the task. Canon consists of five books, of which the first treats chiefly of anatomy and physiology; the second of materia medica; the third of diseases, from the head to the feet; the fourth chiefly of fevers; and the fifth of the compounding of drugs, and of antidotes. The work is curiously divided and subdivided: each book containing a number of divisions called "Fen," each fen so many "treatises" or "doctrines," each doctrine being divided into sums, and, lastly, each sum into chapters. It is intended to be a complete system of medicine both theoretical and practical, and it contains also a compendium of anatomy and botany; accordingly it is strictly methodical in its arrangement, and this must have been one of its chief recommendations in the days of its popularity. At

The