# The Typographia Medicea at Rome prints the Arabic Canon in 1593

Date: 1593

## The fact

In 1593 the Medici Oriental Press at Rome issued the first substantial printed Arabic Canon, a completed papal-Tuscan industrial-cultural product now held and digitised by Wellcome Collection. [Avicenna](/people/avicenna) did not set Arabic type in Rome. A state-backed press that prints a scientific encyclopedia is industrial policy for texts.

## Context

The same press served mission and prestige. Split any confessional use. High confidence on 1593.

Avicenna is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

## Evidence and sources

The named official or archival page and the independent publisher independently describe this instrument.

Official or archival record: Wellcome Collection — 1593 Medicean Arabic Canon of Medicine (https://wellcomecollection.org/works/n94uwhrk; Wellcome Collection).

## Significance

A 1593 Medicean Arabic Canon is an industrial-knowledge instrument, not a 1025 autograph.

A 1593 Medicean Arabic Canon is an industrial-knowledge instrument, not a 1025 autograph.

## What is established and what is not

Established as a dated public record of this instrument.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

## People

- Avicenna: https://factrail.ai/people/avicenna

## Drivers

- Industrial-Policy Activism: https://factrail.ai/drivers/industrial-policy-activism

## Sources

- https://wellcomecollection.org/works/n94uwhrk
- https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/islamic_medical/islamic_07.html

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/av-medici-arabic-canon-1593