Tacuinum Sanitatis

The secrets to good health are revealed in the art book of Tacuinum Sanitatis (mid-15th century, Ms. Lat 9333), a unique iconographic source for the study of every-day life in the Middle Ages kept at the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Bound in luxury green fabric and French book jacket, this edition contains all the miniatures of the manuscript, as well as the translation and transcription of its texts, based on the Tables of Health written by the famous physician Ibn Butlân. His tips, still applicable today, reveal the keys to maintaining optimal health.

The authors of this study volume are the scholars Alain Touwaide (Smithsonian Institution), Eberhard König (Freie Universität Berlin) and Carlos Miranda García-Tejedor (PhD in History). Through its 318 pages and 380 illustrations, we discover the secrets of the codex, its meaning and the context in which it was made, in a cultural guided tour into the world of medieval medicine. 

Download here a sample chapter of the book.