A medieval Spanish Muslim manuscript describing the contributions of nine nations to human knowledge.

Based on personal reminiscences and archival material, as well as published historical sources, Big and Bright is one of the few histories of a major observatory, unique in its focus on the human side of the story.

In this culmination of over twenty years of research, the author employs modern science and anthropological studies innovatively and cautiously to demonstrate the substance to Dioscorides' authority in medicine.