Details

Standardized Title:

Secretum secretorum. Arabic.

Other Title:

Siyāsah fī tadbīr al-riyāsah
سياسة في تدبير الرياسة

Subjects:

Alexander, the Great, 356 B.C.-323 B.C.
Islamic magic.
Alexander, the Great, 356 B.C.-323 B.C. -- In literature.
Education of princes -- Early works to 1800.
Education of princes.
Kings and rulers -- Duties -- Early works to 1800.
Kings and rulers -- Duties.
Political ethics -- Early works to 1800.
Political ethics.
Astronomy -- Early works to 1800.
Astronomy.
Islamic magic -- Early works to 1800.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Treatises.
Manuscripts, Arabic.
Manuscripts, Medieval.

Language:

Arabic.

Summary:

Popular treatise presented as a letter from Aristotle to Alexander the Great on statecraft, astronomy, astrology, magic, and medicine.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Pagination: Paper, i (19th-century?) + 22 + i (19th-century?) leaves; [169-212], modern pagination in ink, upper center.
Layout: Written in 15 long lines.
Script: Written in neat maghribī script; pointed and vocalized.
Decoration: Rubrications in red and blue.
Binding: 19th-century red leather with flap (Type II); blind stamped central mandorla with two pendants on the vertical axis; blind tooled frame and border; blue paper doublure with yellow and black painted flower pattern.
Origin: Copy completed in A.H. 797 (1394; colophon, f. 22r); perhaps produced in Andalusia.
Watermark: Curved horn with a rope looped between the two ends, centrally placed.

Local notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Penn Provenance:

Sold at auction at Christie's, 14 Oct. 2003, lot 23, to Lawrence J. Schoenberg.
Deposit by Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2012.
Gift of Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, 2021.

Cited in:

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 18 (LJS 456).

Cited as:

LJS 456

Contributor:

Aristotle, attributed name.
Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

OCLC:

814278165

Web link:

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