This 1533 manuscript is perhaps equivalent to today’s WebMD. This collection of medical recipes, folk remedies, charm and spells is complete with diagrams, charts and notes added by later hands than the original book writer, Abraham ben Meshullam of Sant’Angelo. Meshullam was a prolific scribe who copied or wrote over thirty known manuscripts. He likely copied this manuscript while he was a private tutor at the home of the wealthy banker and patron of scholars, Laudadio Ishmael de Rieti. The content of the manuscript includes an anonymous Hebrew translation of John of Parma’s medical treatise Practica.
The manuscript was written in Siena, Italy and thus most of the writing is an Italian cursive Hebrew script. Some writing, however, is in Latin script. The manuscript contains 114 leaves and the cover has a Star of David in central lozenge.
