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Type of resource

mixed material

Extent

ff. 135

Date created

[ca. 1300-1399]

Language

Arabic

Material

Vellum

Height (mm)

305

Width (mm)

210

Foliation

ff. i-viii + 1-43 + 43a + 44-135 + ix-xiv

Provenance

Given by W. T. Sandiford in 1796.

Decoration

Miniatures of the so-called Baghdad school.

Summary

This manuscript contains an exceptionally beautiful copy of Kalila wa Dimna, the eighth-century Arabic text by Abdu’llah ibn al-Mugaffa. Ibn al-Mugaffa’s work was based on a third-century Sanskrit speculum principis text, which was transmitted to the Arab world by way of an intermediary sixth-century Persian translation. Kalila wa Dimna contains a series of instructive animal fables, which might be compared to Aesop’s Fables in the Greek tradition. CCCC MS 578 is a fourteenth-century manuscript, in a very fine hand, with superb illustrations characteristic of the Baghdad school. The manuscript was given to Corpus Christi College by W. T. Sandiford in 1796.

Contents

Kalilah and Dimna

M.R. James Date

xiv

Augmented James Record

https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:rg489zn8735/578.pdf

Contains

• Kalilah and Dimna. 1r-135v

  Note

  Arabic version of the Book of Kalilah and Dimna, by Abdu'llah ibn n'l-Mugaffa

Repository

UK, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Parker Library

Location

MS 578

Use and reproduction:

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License:

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