# UNESCO Memory of the World inscribes a Canon Book II manuscript as pharmacy heritage

Date: 2005

## The fact

In 2005 UNESCO’s Memory of the World programme inscribed medieval medical-pharmacy manuscripts including al-Qanun Book II on simples. Book II organises plant, mineral, and animal drugs, including toxic and compound headings later used as portable recipes. [Avicenna](/people/avicenna) did not file 2005. Heritage listing can freeze a contested pharmacology as treasure.

## Context

Simple-and-compound pharmacy is also an observational materia medica. Split testing-rules onto the James Lind row.

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: UNESCO Memory of the World — Medieval manuscripts on medicine and pharmacy (https://www.unesco.org/en/memory-world/medieval-manuscripts-medicine-and-pharmacy; UNESCO).

## Significance

A 2005 heritage listing of Book II is a transmission-risk heading when simples are copied as care. Medium confidence on later misuse, high on the inscription.

A 2005 heritage listing of Book II is a transmission-risk heading when simples are copied as care. Medium confidence on later misuse, high on the inscription.

## 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

- Infectious-Disease Transmission: https://factrail.ai/drivers/infectious-disease-transmission

## Sources

- https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/islamic_medical/islamic_07.html
- https://www.unesco.org/en/memory-world/medieval-manuscripts-medicine-and-pharmacy

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/av-unesco-book2-pharmacology-2005