SKETCH OF AVERROES, 409 



long lain in the library of a certain nobleman in Andalusia. It deals 

 with many curious physiological questions, and furnishes proof that 

 Averroes 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 Averroes, par- 

 ticularly those on jurisprudence, astronomy, essays on special logical 

 subjects, and his criticisms on Avicenna and Alfarabius. Other manu- 

 scripts are preserved in European libraries. The Latin editions of the 

 works of Averroes 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 the- 

 ology of Averroes, he may be gratified by consulting either or both of 

 the following treatises : Renan, " Averrhoes et PAverrhoisme," Paris, 

 1852 ; and Mtiller, " Philosophic und Theologie von Averrhoes " Mu- 

 nich 1859. 



What authority there may have been for the portrait of Averroes 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 Ara- 

 bian 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 re- 

 duced copy of this rare engraving. 



