ibn Zakariya al-Razi

Right now, today, tonight, this evening, tomorrow morning and for the next however long, there is a small team of researchers wandering around Venice, looking at archive material in private libraries and state libraries there, to do with plagues and what we now call 'epidemics' which occurred twelve hundred years ago, hypothesized at the time as having come from China. And the researchers are meant to be looking at diaries and other documents describing how the rulers and the citizens back then, handled the various situations.

As you know, the Venetians developed the mask called the 'medico della peste negra' - the mask of the doctor of the Black Plague!

One of the great scientific minds and thinkers of the medieval era, often regarded among the true fathers of modern medicine - Muhammad Zakariya ibn al-Razi - and discoverer of sulphuric acid and half a dozen other chemical compounds, is among the key writers of these 'plague texts' now being sought and looked at and researched.

A great many things were 'discovered' and/or developed in Venice during its times of unsurpassed wealth and prosperity, from which phase it 'signed itself out of existence' in one single night when Napoleon conquered Europe.

Venice had both state assassins, as well as wine glass orchestras - the latter of which's existence is attributed, by folklore, to the supernal, preternatural being - the Arlecchina...

In Islamic culture, two angels from heaven - Harut and Marut - descended down to Earth upon the orders of Allah, and gave magical instructions to Mankind, consisting of medical cures, drugs, musical instruments, as well as advanced cosmetic arts; these instructions were given 'as a test' (in Islam it's never explained why there are these 'tests' or what their purpose might really be since Allah already knows everything and presumably He does not need to test anything for Himself...).

'Ar-el-'n-Chine...'

; ))