Dot Porter, Curator, Digital Research Services at the University of Pennsylvania Library, presents a video orientation to LJS 386, substantial sections from an illustrated treatise (called in English “Book of the balance of wisdom”) on the measurement of weight, with a historical introduction to theories of gravity and weighing in Greek and Arabic science; tables of densities of substances including metals, precious stones, solids, and liquids; and descriptions of different types of balances.
You can read the complete record for this document (and find links to digitized copies) on Franklin. You can also download a copy of this video from ScholarlyCommons, the University of Pennsylvania’s open access institutional repository.
The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies 