Undated copy of of Avicenna's Canon of Medicine. The Canon of Medicine is a 14 volume Persian medical encyclopedia written by Avicenna and completed in 1025. The work covers such basic subjects as anatomy and hygiene, describes a vast range of diseases and injuries, and lists hundreds of different medicines. Avicenna (980-1037) was a Persian polymath, who wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived. His most famous works are The Book of Healing, a vast philosophical and scientific encyclopedia, and The Canon of Medicine, which was a standard medical text at many medieval universities. The Canon of Medicine provides a complete system of medicine according to the principles of Galen and Hippocrates. His corpus also includes writing on philosophy, astronomy, alchemy, geology, psychology, Islamic theology, logic, mathematics, physics, as well as poetry. He is regarded as the most famous and influential polymath of the Islamic Golden Age. He died in 1037 at the age of 58.