JOURNAL OF THE PHARMACIST HAGOP SON OF TOUMA, 1669. - Lot 19

JOURNAL OF THE PHARMACIST HAGOP SON OF TOUMA, 1669. Exceptional manuscript on paper written in Middle Armenian, in notragir script, in black and red ink. The colophons state that the manuscript was written in Andrinople (Edirné), Turkey, in the church of Saint Toros, Saint Theodokos and Saint Minas by Hagop (Hakob) son of Touma (Thomas) from the town of Tév, who spent three years in Andrinople for trade and copied various manuscripts. 234 leaves. 15 x 10 cm. Restored leather binding with clasps (one cover preserved). This heterogeneous manuscript contains rare texts, including: - "Les Bienfaits de la médecine ou l'Utile à la médecine" by the Armenian physician Amirdovlat d'Amasée (15th c.); folios 1r-13r (1-15 pages missing from the beginning of our manuscript). - "On the Nature of Man", by an anonymous Armenian physician; folios 13v-27r. - An Armenian popular medical treatise; folios 28v-154r. - A medical dictionary with Latin and Arabic names of medicines beginning with the Armenian letter "?"; folios 156r-164v. - Information on meteorology, the direction and strength of the wind and sea, the day on which trees can be cut for wood, important anniversaries, the time for taking medicines, on the dishes eaten each month, which flowers or spices grow for each month, how to use them, which medicines to take: folios 167v- 179r. - "Renunciation of the Devil" and "Confession of Faith"; folios 183v- 190r. - Two tables of the Seven Deadly Sins and the other sins they generate; folios 190v and 191v-192r. - "History of the birth and education of the servant of the Antichrist Mohammed". This is a caustic biography of Muhammad that can be found in the preface to an anonymous work commonly known as the Pseudo-Chabouh Bagratouni. The text on healings certainly caught the author's attention; folios 193v-206r. - "The Story of the Image of the Lord" evoking the healings of the Holy Shroud of Christ; folio 206v. - "Spiritual Poem" (Tagh Hogevor) by Meguerditch Nakache which is a kind of Armenian monodic and poetic song-writing; folios 209r-215r. - How to heal a burn wound; folios 216v-217r. - Comments on the Armenian calendar by Anania de Chirak with a table; folios 219r-225v. - A table and a text forming a kind of game through which it was possible to guess one's fate. The person who wanted to know the outcome of a particular situation had to close his eyes and place his finger somewhere on the table, and the letter on which his finger fell corresponded to the destiny text written after the table; folios 225v-228v. Note that the last two pages, bound with the rest of the manuscript, are in Latin on parchment, "Proverbs of Solomon" and "Ecclesiastes", probably from the 15th century.