-
Views
-
Cite
Cite
Osman Sabuncuoglu, Ozalp Ekinci, Comment on the Cover, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 47, Issue 1, 1 July 2008, Page 146, https://doi.org/10.1086/588848
Close - Share Icon Share
Extract
To the Editor—We are pleased to see an illustration by Serefeddin Sabuncuoglu as the cover art of the 15 May 2007 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases and deeply appreciate the editorial decision to highlight it as an important piece of work in the history of the struggle against infectious diseases. However, some corrections are required to improve the text that aims to explain the illustration.
First, there is a high degree of agreement among the experts that the correct name of the author of the manuscript from which the image was taken, and presumably the physician in the illustration, is Serefeddin Sabuncuoglu, who lived and practiced medicine in northern Anatolia during the 15th century [1]. His birth and death dates are almost accurately documented as 1385 and 1470, respectively, which is another point that needs clarification in the text describing the cover.
Secondly, Serefeddin Sabuncuoglu was a member of a Turkish family with no known Arabic connection. It seems that the Arab surgeon Albucasis's book at-Tasrif, which served as a main resource to Serefeddin Sabuncuoglu's book Cerrahiyetü'l Haniyye, and the Arabic script of the text led to a false impression that the author was an Arab physician. In addition, the text of Sabuncuoglu's book, which is housed in the Bibliotheque Nationale, is written in Turkish. Several articles derived from this handwritten manuscript can be searched for in the Medline database.
