Planets, Potions, and Parchments : Scientifica Hebraica From the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Eighteenth Century

More than 200 rare scientific manuscripts, books, maps, amulets, and magical texts have been brought together from renowned collections in Europe, Canada, Israel, Great Britain, and the United States specifically for this exhibition. The most famous among these is a fragment from the Dead Sea Scrolls containing chapters 81 to 85 from the Book of Psalms: fragments from the scrolls have been in Canada on only two other occasions. The exhibition will have an Assyrian cuneiform tablet from the seventh century BCE that describes treatments for eye ailments, a first edition Copernicus, and several texts by Maimonides, including one with marginal notes by Martin Luther. Also featured, in a rare Latin translation, is an Arabic medical book written by a Jew, demonstrating the international and inter-faith nature of the medieval scientific endeavour. Planets, Potions, and Parchments is a heavily illustrated and informative catalogue published in conjunction with a major exhibition of the same name. The exhibition, presented by the Jewish Public Library, runs from May to September at the David M. Stewart Museum in Montreal. Both catalogue and exhibition explore the important yet often neglected Jewish contribution to the history of science.