AVYCEN. Abu-'Ali al-Husain ibn-'Abdullah ibn-Sina, 980-1037, was born in the Persian province of Kharmaithan, where his father was governor. In a short autobiography, he tells that by the time he was sixteen he had mastered all his teachers could teach him, and that he was practicing medicine by the time he was eighteen. He dismissed his last teacher, Nateli, who admitted he had nothing more to give. After that, ibn-Sina taught himself everything he needed to know: logic, natural sciences, medicine, and philosophy. While serving as vizier to Shams al-Dawlah, emir of Hamadan (997-1021), ibn-Sina experienced the most productive period of his life. He began his Qanun, or The Canon of Medicine, an immense medical encyclopedia, and from c. 1020 to 1030 completed his Kitab al-Shifa, or The Book of Healing, incorporating Aristotle's Physica (Physics), De generatione et corruptione (On Generation and Corruption), De caelo et mundo (On the Heavens), and Liber animalium (The Book of Animals); Section 9 of Part IV is devoted to Aristotle's treatment of poetry. Michael Scot translated and abbreviated his commentary on the Liber animalium for Frederick II before 1232. Gerard of Cremona translated the Qanun in the second half of the twelfth century.

Avycen appears in the Doctor's catalogue of authorities, Gen Prol 432. The Pardoner refers to the Qanun and its chapters on poisons, Book IV, fen vi (a fen is a subdivision of a book), PardT 889-892. Merton College Library owned a copy of this work between 1360 and 1385. [Aristotle: Averrois]

Avycen is the ME development of Latin Avicenna, derived from the Arabic patronymic, ibn-Sina, by way of Hebrew Aven Sina. The contraction appears in final rhyming position, Gen Prol 432, PardT 889.