The unicorn has a single four-foot horn in the middle of its forehead, so sharp and strong that it tosses in the air or impales whatever it attacks. It has such strength that it can be captured by no hunter's ability, but, as those who have written about the natures of animals claim, if a virgin girl is set before a unicorn, as the beast approaches, she may open her lap and it will lay its head there with all ferocity put aside, and thus lulled and disarmed it may be captured.
Today's #MedicalMonday is Ms. Codex 1660, a collection of alchemical recipes for medicinal use. Recipes include elixirs for epilepsy or stroke, purgatives, stomachics, remedies for worms, deafness, toothaches, gangrene and a number of powders, oils, syrups, and spirits with detailed information on their creation and application. Probably written in France in the second half of the 18th century #medicine #medical #historyofmedicine #historyofscience #alchemy #recipes #manuscript #18thcentury #france #bookhistory #rarebooks
LJS 447 is an Arabic work containing descriptions and illustrations of domestic and wild animals, birds, insects, marine animals, plants, stemless plants, and herbs. Written in Aleppo, Syria, in 1710 by Jibrāyil ibn Mikhāyil al-Ḥamawī #18thc #arabic #animals #birds #insects #herbal #plants #illustrated #zoology #botany #rarebooks #bookhistory
LJS 64 is a book of diagrams, many with moving parts, called volvelles, designed to accompany the work Theoricae novae planetarum by 15th-century Austrian astronomer Georg von Peurbach. Written in northern Italy, probably Padua, in the mid-16th century. #renaissance #medieval #volvelles #astronomy #italy #padua #diagrams #bookhistory #rarebooks #bookstagram #librariesofinstagram
The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies 