Documentary - Restoring the eleventh-century Arabic manuscript De Materia Medica
Water damage, old restorations and copper corrosion in some illustrations. De Materia Medica has been through a lot over the centuries. The manuscript dates from 1083 AD and is one of the oldest illustrated Arabic manuscripts in the world. Due to intensive use, De Materia Medica was no longer in good condition. In 2022, the manuscript was recently subject to a large-scale conservation effort, with the support of ProParte, the association of professors of Leiden University, their spouses and partners.
In the documentary, conservator Godelieva van der Randen shows in detail how the restoration of De Materia Medica was carried out, step by step. With Arnoud Vrolijk, curator of Middle Eastern manuscripts and old prints, and conservator Karin Scheper, she discusses the various choices that were made before and during the restoration. Godelieva also shows which steps were taken to make this important and much sought-after manuscript with its numerous colorful, mostly botanical illustrations once again available exhibitions worldwide.
Due to the selected cookie settings, we cannot show this video here.
Watch the video on the original website orEnglish subtitles are available via the options menu.
Het manuscript
The Materia Medica (Or. 289) – officially called Kitab al-hashaʾish fi hayula al-ʿilaj al-tibbi – is a lavishly illustrated manual on the use of herbs and plants in medicine. It is an Arabic translation of Peri hyles iatrikes by the first-century AD Greek physician Pedanius Dioscurides. The work was translated from Greek into Arabic via Syriac in the ninth century by Hunayn ibn Ishaq (810–873). This translation was slightly revised by Husayn ibn Ibrahim al-Natili in 990–91. The present manuscript was copied in Samarkand in present-day Uzbekistan on a Monday in February 1083 during the fasting month of Ramadan, after which it was presented to the ruler of Samarkand. The Materia Medica was acquired many centuries later by Dutch orientalist and diplomat Levinus Warner (1619-1665) and bequeathed to Leiden University upon his death.
Digital Collections
The Materia Medica is available for consultation for everyone in Leiden University Libraries' Digital Collections. Both the version with the now restored page order and the previous version with the old, disrupted order are available.