More on Ibn Abi Usaibia

I’m interested in the references to the Christians that appear in the works of the 2nd century medical writer Galen.  I discovered that a bunch of them appear only in the medical dictionary of the Arabic writer Ibn Abi Usaibia. 

A while back I discovered that an unpublished English translation exists in typescript at the US National Library of Medicine (see also here and here).  Since then I have been in contact with the NLM, to try to obtain a copy.

My initial contacts were very unpromising, but things have improved and I learn that the translation was made under a US-Israeli government contract back in the 1960’s, and  that the translation is probably in the public domain.  This is because US-government commissioned stuff is automatically public domain, and quite right too.

A reader contacted me and said that he has been to the NLM and inspected the manuscript.  It’s in typescript, and about 1,000 pages.  But from the look of it, it’s all  good stuff.  There’s no footnotes or commentary; but what do we care?

Here’s hoping that I can lay hands on a copy of this object!