The ''Commentary on
Anatomy
Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...
in
Avicenna's Canon'' is a manuscript written in the 13th century by the Arab physician
Ibn al-Nafis. The manuscript was discovered in 1924 in the archives of the
Prussian State Library
The Berlin State Library (german: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin; officially abbreviated as ''SBB'', colloquially ''Stabi'') is a universal library in Berlin, Germany and a property of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. It is one of the lar ...
in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
, Germany.
[ It contains the earliest descriptions of the coronary circulation and ]pulmonary circulation
The pulmonary circulation is a division of the circulatory system in all vertebrates. The circuit begins with deoxygenated blood returned from the body to the right atrium of the heart where it is pumped out from the right ventricle to the lungs ...
systems.
Latin translation
The manuscript was translated into Latin by the Italian physician Andrea Alpago
Andrea Alpago (c. 1450 – late 1521Biografia d Alpago, Andrea in the ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'' (Volume 2 - 1960), by Giorgio Levi Della Vida or January 1522) was an Italian physician and arabist. In publications of his work in Lat ...
, In 1520, Alpago returned to Padua
Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...
with a Latin translation of the commentary, after living in the Arabian Peninsula for 30 years.
Reception
{{Commentary by Dr. ( Ibn al-Nafis regarding the Canon of Avicenna is well documented. Many scholars recognize this polymath as the discoverer of the pulmonary circulation.
See also
* ''The Canon of Medicine
''The Canon of Medicine'' ( ar, القانون في الطب, italic=yes ''al-Qānūn fī al-Ṭibb''; fa, قانون در طب, italic=yes, ''Qanun-e dâr Tâb'') is an encyclopedia of medicine in five books compiled by Persian physician-phi ...
''
References
Medical manuscripts
Medical works of the medieval Islamic world
Avicenna