Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 25.djvu/421

Rh long lain in the library of a certain nobleman in Andalusia. It deals with many curious physiological questions, and furnishes proof that Averroës was a practicing physician. Space will not permit me to make extracts from the work, though, in passing, it may be mentioned that he speaks of his own experiments and experiences; for example, he discourses at length on the value of milk in the treatment of pulmonary consumption.

The library of the Escurial in Spain still contains in manuscript among its treasures the greater part of the writings of Averroës, particularly those on jurisprudence, astronomy, essays on special logical subjects, and his criticisms on Avicenna and Alfarabius. Other manuscripts are preserved in European libraries. The Latin editions of the works of Averroës have been very numerous. The first appeared at Padua in 1472; about fifty were published at Venice, the best known being that by the Juntas in 1552-'53, in ten folio volumes. During the century from 1480 to 1580 no less than one hundred editions were issued. This fact attests the exalted estimation in which his works were held. None were ever printed in Arabic. The "Colliget" was first printed in 1482, at Venice, in folio; also in 1490, 1492, 1497, 1514, 1542, and 1552. The commentary on the "Canticles" of Avicenna were printed in nearly as many editions, and often with the "Colliget."

Should the reader desire to know more of the philosophy and theology of Averroës, he may be gratified by consulting either or both of the following treatises: Renan, "Averrhoès et l'Averrhoisme," Paris, 1852; and Müller, "Philosophic und Theologie von Averroës" Munich 1859.

What authority there may have been for the portrait of Averroës by Raphael, now in the Vatican, I am quite unable to state. The writer has a fine old print, on a folio sheet, of this portrait, engraved by P. Fidanza. It is done in bold pen-and-ink-like strokes, being an Arabian head covered with a massive turban, a face of earnest but fierce expression, more suggestive of a Bedouin chief than of a profound philosopher.

The frontispiece in the present number of the "Monthly" is a reduced copy of this rare engraving.