Details

Standardized Title:

Mīzān al-ḥikmah. Selections
ميزان الحكمة. Selections

Other Title:

Book of the balance of wisdom.

Subjects:

Hydrostatics.
Scales (Weighing instruments).
Balances (Weighing instruments).
Balances (Weighing instruments) -- Early works to 1800.
Scales (Weighing instruments) -- Early works to 1800.
Hydrostatics -- Early works to 1800.
Mechanics -- Early works to 1800.
Mechanics.

Form/Genre:

Manuscripts, Arabic.
Manuscripts, Medieval.
Gatherings (gathered matter components)
Detached leaves.
Treatises.
Diagrams.
Tables (documents)
Early works.
Codices.

Language:

Arabic.

Summary:

Substantial sections from an illustrated treatise 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. 26 diagrams and 18 tables with a few marginal notes. A few catchwords have been added by later hands. Damage to edges of many leaves.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title from table of contents (p. 16, 17).
Pagination: Paper, 98 leaves; [3-18, 37-38, 43-78, 83-94, 97-188, 191-192, 231-232, 235-240, 243-244, 247-248, 261-276, 285-292]; modern pagination in pencil, upper outer corners.
Layout: Written in 15 long lines.
Script: Written in naskh in black ink; partially pointed, with headings in larger tawqīʻ.
Decoration: 26 diagrams and 18 tables in red and black ink; rubrications in red.
Binding: Unbound, with some partial gatherings still joined or repaired at gutter.
Origin: Item is undated, likely copied sometime between the last half of the 13th century and the first half of the 14th century.

Local notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Penn Provenance:

Sold by Sam Fogg Ltd., cat. 22 (2000), to Lawrence J. Schoenberg.
Deposit by Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2011.
Gift of Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, 2016.

Cited in:

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 114-115 (LJS 386).

Cited as:

UPenn LJS 386.

Contributor:

Schoenberg, Lawrence J., former owner.
Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

OCLC:

792895897

Web link:

The Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative Fund Home Page