Doctors Preparing Burnt Copper, Folio from an Illustrated Arabic Manuscript of “De materia medica” by Dioscorides

This Persian manuscript illustration depicts two physicians processing burnt copper. In between them is a stove with a large pot; golden flames rise from the top. Flames also escape from a hole at the left side of the stove. The physicians’ garments are enhanced with gold and there is a golden halo behind each of their heads.

This detached page comes from an Arabic manuscript translation of De materia medica (On Medical Material), a multi-volume encyclopedia about herbal medicine that was widely read for more than 1,500 years. Dioscorides Pedanius (about 40–90 CE) of Anazarbos, Cilicia (present-day Turkey) originally authored this reference work in Greek. The lines of text were written in brownish-black Naskhī script, an early form of Islamic calligraphy known for its legibility.