Fine copy of a scarce 1508 third edition (first 1503, second 1504) of “the first modern encyclopedia to appear in print” (Smith, Rara Arithmetica, p. 83). Written in the popular didactic form of a Latin dialogue between master and pupil and enriched with an extensive program of (very lively) woodcuts..... More
A fine and fresh copy of the editio princeps of the Hippocratic corpus, a collection of texts assembled in the third century B.C., including the Hippocratic Oath and many of the foundation texts of western medicine, traditionally attributed to the legendary physician and teacher Hippocrates of Cos. “It is uncertain..... More
Rare, second Italian-language edition (first 1522) of the Herbarius latinus, an important document for the dissemination of botanical/medical knowledge in popular culture, particularly for the adoption of this originally German-printed Latin work for readers in the Veneto. According to Hunt, the woodcut on the title showing Saints Cosmos and Damian..... More
Rare first edition of this influential balneological treatise by one of the founding fathers of hydrotherapy. A modern interpretation of Galen, Avicenna and Hippocrates, Brancaleoni's work promoted the healthful and hygienic effects of bathing a generation earlier than Falloppio, and well in advance of the 19th-century pan-European trend for spa..... More
Rare 1540 (first quarto) Tudor translation of an important early medical work on the curative properties of the American wood known as ‘guaiacum,’ a text first published in Latin in 1519 as De Guaiaci Medicina et Morbo Gallico by the German scholar, poet and reformation thinker Ulrich von Hutten (1488-1523)..... More
Very rare first edition (1565) – virtually unacquirable for the past half century or more – of the first printed work devoted to the botanical and medicinal discoveries made in the Americas, a treatise which, through its later expansions and numerous translations, would remain “for many years the most important..... More
First edition of the renowned physician Bartolomeo Eustachi’s (c. 1500-1574) commentary on the Vocum of Erotianus (active c. 50-70 A.D.) an ancient collection of words found in the corpus of Hippocrates (c. 460-370 B.C.). A contemporary of Andreas Vesalius (1514-64), with whom he shares the distinction of having created the..... More
A handsome sammelband of the two most important anatomical works of the French Renaissance, both in their first French editions. Charles Estienne’s superbly-illustrated Dissection des Parties du Corps Humain is bound here after Jacques Grévin’s adaptation of Vesalius’ De Humani Corporis Fabrica, being the first appearance of Vesalius in the..... More
Rare first edition of the naturalist Charles de l’Ecluse’s (Carolus Clusius; 1526-1609) botany of Sir Francis Drake’s 1577-80 circumnavigation (the first by an Englishman), the first printed book in botanical literature to be substantially based on a specific trans-Atlantic voyage of any kind, and indeed the first substantial record of..... More
First edition, and an important annotated copy, of the foundational text of scientific botany and the first articulation of the modern concept of species. Andrea Cesalpino’s (1519-1603) comparative plant taxonomy – “the first rational system of plant classification” (PMM) – far surpassed any rival system of his day. De plantis..... More
Rare first edition of one of the earliest works on the subject of scurvy by the well-known anatomist, undertaken to survey the incidence of the disease in the ducal territories around Wittenberg, and consequently qualifying as an example of public health medicine. According to O’Malley, its positive result was the..... More
Rare first edition of this commentary on Cesalpino's Peripeteticarum Quaestionum (1571) by Nicolai Taurelius, Professor of Medicine and Philosophy in Altdorf, of interest for the contemporary reception of Cesalpino as well as the spread of his doctrines outside of Italy. The work takes the form of a classical commentary, with..... More
![Opera,comprising:]De venarum ostiolis. Hieronymus FABRICIUS](/pictures/thumb/203.jpg?v=1548787672)
First editions of these four tracts (the second, De locutione, is the first folio edition; see below), including Girolamo Fabrizio’s (c. 1533-1619) two most important works, the De venarum ostiolis, and the De formato foetu. The De venarum ostiolis is one of the great rarities of anatomical literature: Fabrizio’s discovery..... More
![Ex curationibus observationes quibus videre ets [sic] morbos…. Paul de RENEAULME](/pictures/thumb/5744.jpg?v=1537296270)
Very rare first and only edition of an early important collection of 201 medical case-studies, or observationes, by the physician and botanist Paul de Reneaulme (1560-1624), a native of Blois, who is best remembered for his finely illustrated work on plants, the Specimen historiae plantarum (1611). The present work, notable..... More
Rare second edition of “decidedly the best of the Renaissance books on ophthalmology” (Garrison). “Guillemeau was a pupil of Ambroise Paré; his book was an epitome of the existing knowledge on the subject, chiefly from Greek and Arabian sources” (Garrison & Morton). Guillemeau was a leading authority on ophthalmology, obstetrics..... More
Scarce, French-language edition of Du Laurens'works, with a set of 26 anatomical engravings derived from Vesalius and others. "This is the second edition of the French translation of Du Laurens' collected works... which preceeded the publication of the Latin text. In addition to the author's textbook of anatomy and his..... More
Extremely rare group of anatomical pamphlets in first Latin edition by Lodewijk de Bils, a nobleman from Flanders, who advertised a method of turning bodies into transparent teaching tools preserved and embalmed in a wax-like substance. The sammelband includes his treatises on the gall-bladder (Epistolica Dissertatio) and on the dissection..... More
First edition (? see below) of Becher’s popular alchemical handbook, which “rapidly became a standard text on elements, principles, and chemical processes” (DSB II.550) containing an engraved representation of the Prague Medal as well as a title engraving of the chemist with allegorical figures. “Becher’s views on chemistry have much..... More
An attractive example of the rare first edition of one of the earliest and most influential anatomical treatises published expressly for the use of artists, with text by the famed theorist, art historian and connoisseur Roger de Piles (1635-1709) and fine, full-page plates engraved after Vesalius by François Tortebat (c..... More
Very rare first and sole edition of this professional guide to assaying gold, silver and assorted precious metals by a practicing Madrid assayer, of interest for the international as well as mercantile history of Spain in the last years of her imperial period. The work treats the physical properties..... More
Rare 1720 Spanish-language relacion of an eyewitness account by the Bishop of Marseille, Henri François Xavier de Belsunce de Castelmoron (1671-1766), concerning the Great Plague then sweeping Marseille. Belsunce de Castelmoron, who would become famous for his extreme bravery in staying in the city to attend to the sick and..... More
Very rare first edition, first issue (without the errata printed on verso of F8) of "one of the greatest of medical classiscs" describing a new method of physical diagnosis--thoracic percussion, namely, tapping a patient's chest and determining from the resultant sound whether it was healthy or diseased. The method was..... More
Rare, second edition and a mint copy of this popular Italian illustrated obstetrics guide. Containing plates of anatomical diagrams, illustrations of tools including several types of forceps, and somewhat atypically in our experience, a depiction of a lying-in bed without the mother to make viewing of a 'system' of blankets..... More
First edition and fine copy of this work on plant classification which eclipsed all previous taxonomies, and whose general arrangement of families remains current today. Jussieu’s taxonomy was based on the species contained in the Jardin du Roi, supplemented by material provided by some of the great 18th-century Pacific discovery..... More
Extremely rare first edition of a medical case study on a severe case of osteomalacia, or bone softening, in the skull, thorax and pelvis of a young woman. The report briefly outlines the history of the case and the acquisition of the cadaver before launching into a highly detailed, technical..... More