Objective: This study seeks to identify and examine an aesthetically significant and archaic manuscript of the Bahramshahi Kalila and Dimna. Produced only 140 years after Nasrullah Munshi’s seminal translation, this codex contains an extensive cycle of artistic illustrations. The research aims to establish a scholarly foundation for the critical edition and future publication of this valuable primary source.

Methods: Utilizing a descriptive-analytical methodology, the research identifies the scribe and investigates the manuscript’s primary codicological features—including endowment seals (waqf-namas), foliation, lineation, and script style—as well as its paleographic and orthographic attributes (Persianate letterforms, diacritics, etc.). Furthermore, the text is systematically collated with the base copy used in Mojtaba Minovi’s authoritative critical edition of Kalila and Dimna.

Results: The calligrapher’s nisba reveals his origins in Vizgol (Bidgol, Kashan). In the aftermath of the Mongol invasion, he migrated to Baghdad, where he pursued a career as a kaqadh-navis (stationer/scribe). Currently, the only known extant copy of this version is preserved in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), transcribed by Abu Tahir Vizgoli in 678 AH in Madinat al-Salam (Baghdad). The manuscript’s numerous illustrations represent some of the earliest documented paintings in Persian codices. Written in an elegant and highly legible Naskh script, the text is remarkably free of scribal errors and appears to be devoid of lacunae.

Conclusion: The orthographic characteristics of Abu Tahir Vizgoli’s manuscript reflect an archaic scribal tradition. Comparative analysis with Minovi’s base version indicates an identical structural arrangement; however, Vizgoli’s copy contains a higher frequency of poetic verses, suggesting...