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Early Printing & Manuscripts / Medicine & Pharmacy

Medical secrets plus a largely imaginary Medieval European view of India

[ACHILLINI, Alessandro]. Secreta secretorum Aristotelis.
Including:
ARISTOTLE [pseudo]. Maximi philosophi ... de signis aquarum: & tempestatum.
ARISTOTLE [pseudo]. Maximi philosophurum ... de mineralibus.
ALEXANDER OF APHRODISIAS. De intellectu.
AVERROES. De beatitudine anime.
ACHILLINI, Alexander. De universalibus.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT [pseudo]. De mirabilibus Indie.
(Colophon: Lyon, Antoine Blanchard, 1528. Small 8vo. With a title-page with a 4-piece decorated woodcut border with flowers, birds and snails, woodcut printer's device on last page, 6 woodcut initials and a leaf ornament. Set in 3 sizes of rotunda gothic types, with the title in roman capitals. Contemporary blind-tooled sheepskin(?) parchment over wooden boards, in a panel design with quadruple fillets and 2 decorative rolls, brass catch-plates and anchor-plates (straps and clasps lost). LXXXIII ll. Full description
€ 11,500
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Latin translation of a classic Arabic surgical manual that reformed European knowledge of the subject

ABULCASIS (Abu al-Quasim Khalaf Ibn Al-Abbas). Chirurgicorum omniu[m] primarii, lib. tres.
I. De cauterio cum igne & medicinis acutis per
singula corporis humani membra ...
II. De sectione & perforatione, phlebotomia, & ventosis ...
III. De restauratione & curatione dislocationis me[m]brorum ...
preceded by:
[THEODORUS PRISCIANUS] (mis-attributed to "Octavius HORATIANUS"). Rerum medicarum lib. quatuor ... Per Herma[n]num Comitem a Neüenar, nuper restitutus autor.
Strasbourg, Johannes Schott, 1532 (colophon: 26 February). 2 works in 1 edition. Folio in 6s (32.5 x 21 cm). With a 5-piece woodcut frame on the title-page (each side piece with 2 roundels containing a portrait and coat-of-arms), 8 full-page woodcuts by Hans Wechtlin (ca. 1480-post 1526) and numerous woodcuts in the text. Set in Venetian-style roman types, with 14 mm typographic Roman capitals (probably by Peter Schoeffer the younger) used as initials. Later half sheepskin, with the title in ink on the foot edge. [8], 319, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 65,000
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Incunable on poisons, using various Arabic sources

ARDUINO, Sante. [Incipit:] Incipit liber de venenis ...
(Colophon: Venice, Bernardino Rizzo, 1492). Folio (42 x 28 cm). Set in in 2 columns in 2 sizes of rotunda gothic types, with spaces left for numerous 3-line and 4-line and a few larger initials (with printed guide letters), none filled in. Modern black- and gold-tooled calf. [4], 101, [1] ll. Full description
€ 45,000
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Testing Galenic medicine

BRASAVOLA (BRASSAVOLA), Antonio Musa. Examen omnium electuariorum, pulverum, et confectionum.
Venice, Vincent Valgrisi, 1548. 8vo. With a woodcut device on title-page and a larger version on the last page. Later stiff paper wrappers. 140, [2] pp. Full description
€ 9,500
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A brief history of medicine, including Mesue, Avicenna, Serapion the Younger and other Arab authors

CHAMPIER, Symphorien. Castigationes seu emendationes pharmacopolarum, sive apothecariorum, ac Arabum medicorum Mesue, Serapionis, Rafis, Alpharabii, & aliorum iuniorum medicorum...
(Colophon: Lyon, Johannes Crespin, 1532). 2 parts in 1 volume (bound in reverse order). 8vo. With armorial woodcut on title-page to the second part (bound as opening title-page), repeated several times in text, and numerous woodcut initials. Contemporary vellum, richly blind-tooled in a panel design. LVI, CXII ll. Full description
€ 12,500
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Sea salts not whale sperm

CORDUS, Valerius. De halosantho seu spermate ceti vulgo dicto, liber nunc primum in lucem abditus.
Zürich, [Jacob Gessner], 1566. 8vo. With woodcut printer's device on title-page and a woodcut initial. Modern paper boards, early marbled edges. [3], 37 ll. Full description
€ 1,500
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Important source on mediaeval pharmacology: the fundamental Renaissance work for the study of medicinal plants

DIOSCORIDES, Pedanius. In hoc volumine haec continentu.r [!] Ioannis Baptistae Egnatii Veneti in Dioscoridem ab Hermolao Barbaro tralatum annotamenta. Quibus morborum et remediorum vocabula obscuriora in usum etiam mediocriter eruditorum explicantur ...
Venice, Francesco Barbaro & Giovanni Bartolomeo Gabiano for Giovanni & Gregorio De Gregori, 1 February 1516. 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio (22.5 x 32 cm). Later vellum with old gold-tooled red spine label. [36], “CXXXIII” [= CXXXIV], 106 ll. Full description
€ 8,500
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First edition of Ruel's translation of a foundational work on pharmacology

DIOSCORIDES, Pedanius. De medicinali materia libri quinque. De virulentis animalibus, et venenis canerabioso, et eorum noti, ac remedijs libri quattuor.
(Colophon: Paris, Henri Estienne, 1516). Folio. With the title within a decorative metalcut( ?) panel. Set in roman types. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment; rebacked in calf, with new endpapers, but preserving the original paste-downs. [12], 157, [2], [1 blank] ll. Full description
€ 18,000
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Extremely rare issue of a pocket edition of "the most influential treatise of classical antiquity in Greek on the natural substances used for the preparation of medicines"

DIOSCORIDES, Pedanius. De medica materia libri sex.
Lyon, Thibaud Payen (Theobaldus Paganus), 1546 (colophon: 1547). 16mo. With a woodcut device on title-page and some woodcut initials. 18th-century calf, rebacked with original gold-tooled backstrip laid down. [30], 543, [147] pp. Full description
€ 3,950
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Scholarly medical botany for a broad public, Plantin edition with a new chapter

DODOENS (DODONAEUS), Rembert. Medicinalium observationum exempla rara. Accessere & alia quaedam, quorum elenchum pagina post praefationem exhibet.
Leiden, Christoffel Plantin, 1585. Small 8vo (16 x 10 cm). With Plantin's woodcut compasses device on the title-page. Contemporary reversed parchment (made from the lower part of a leaf from a 16th-century legal document in German, with a reference to Basel). [16], 298, [6] pp. Full description
€ 5,500
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Rare second French edition of an influential pharmacopoeia

DUBOIS, Jacques (Jacobus SYLVIUS), translated by André CAILLE. La pharmacopee. Qui est la maniere de bien choisir & preparer les simples, & de bien faires les compositions: despartie en trois livres ...
Lyon, Louis Cloquemin, 1580. 16mo (12.5 x 8 cm). With Cloquemin's woodcut device on the title-page. Recased in contemporary(?) sheepskin parchment. [26], 686, [6], [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 3,750
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1572 pharmaceutical work on medicines from the Greeks and Arabs

DU BOYS (SYLVIUS), Jean (Joannis de BOIS). In methodum miscendorum medicamentorum, quae in quotidiano sunt usu observationes, ex Graecic, Arabibus, & Neotericis.
Paris, Jaques Kerver, 1572. 8vo. With Kerver's woodcut device on title-page, depicting a unicorn with the family's arms, and a large cast ornament on the otherwise blank last page. Contemporary limp vellum, traces of ties. [8], 134, [10] ll. Full description
€ 4,500
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First edition of a leading medical-pharmaceutical work, with stunning woodcut headpieces and initials

DUPUIS (PUTEANUS), Guillaume. De medicamentorum quomodocunque purgantium facultatibus, nusquam anteà neque dictis, neque per ordinem digestis libri duo ...
Lyon, Macé Bonhomme, 1552. 4to. With a woodcut device on the title-page no doubt made for this edition (showing Hypocrates and Galenus, with motto, "In omnem terram exivit doctrina eorum"), finely executed arabesque woodcut headpieces and numerous woodcut initials with pictorial decoration (4 series, the two largest especially fine). Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties. [8], 179, [1] pp. Full description
€ 6,500
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Last edition during Fuchs life of his own revision of his first publication, promoting medical "simples" originally published 12 years before his great herbal, De historia stirpium

FUCHS, Leonart. Paradoxorum medicinae libri tres...
Paris, Charlotta Guillard, widow of Claude Chevallon, 1555. 8vo. With some woodcut initials. The main text (and shoulder notes) set in italic type, the preface and long chapter headings in roman and long passages in Greek. Contemporary vellum over thin boards with title in ink on spine and on lower edge, modern endpapers. [20], 239 ll. Full description
€ 1,000
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Rare second Latin edition of Galen's De sanitate tuenda,
his first work translated directly from the original Greek

GALENUS (GALEN), Claudius (Thomas LINACRE, translator). Libri sex prefulge[n]tissimi ac medicine principis Galeni de sanitate tue[n]da: Thoma Linacro medico Anglico interprete: summa cum diligentia impressi omnibusq[ue] erroribus purgati.
[colophon:] Venice, heirs of Alessandro Bindoni for Giovanni Battista Pederzano, 6 July 1523. 4to. Title-page with a nearly full-page woodcut, woodcut initials in the text. Contemporary vellum over flexible boards, a manuscript title and a later paper label with "1522" on the spine and a manuscript title at the foot edge. [4], XCIX, [1] ll. Full description
€ 7,500
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Richly illustrated 16th-century atlas on celestial and terrestrial physics and their influence on medicine

GALLUCCI, Giovanni Paolo. Theatrum mundi, et temporis in quo non solum precipuae horum partes describuntur, & ratio metiendi eas traditur, sed accomodatissimis figuris sub oculos legentium facile ponuntur.
Venice, Giovanni Battista Somasco, 1588. 4to. With Somasco's Sagittarius device on the title-page, 144 full-page woodcuts (particularly circular diagrams, dials and figures of the constellations, but also hemispherical and terrestrial maps and other cosmographical and astronomical figures), 1 large folding table ("Canon sexagenarius"), several full-page or smaller tables in the text and woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials. Lacking the moving volvelles. Contemporary overlapping vellum, manuscript title (faded) on spine. [16], 478, [2] pp. Full description
€ 6,000
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Rare edition of two medical works, on the mystery of the golden tooth and sleepwalking

HORSTIUS, Jacob. De aureo dente Maxillari Pueri Silesii, primum, utrum eius generatio naturalis fuerit, nec ne; deinde an digna eius interpretatio dari queat.
Including: HORSTIUS, Jacob. De natura differentiis et causis eorum, qui dormientes ambulant, vigilantium opera, eaq.
Leipzig, Valentinus Voegelinus (colophon: printed by Michael Lanzenberger), 1595. 2 parts in 1 volume. Small 8vo (14 x 9 cm). With woodcut printers device on title-page (repeated above the colophon). 19th-century half vellum. [12] 318, [14] pp. Full description
€ 5,000
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10 Mediaeval works on health, medicine, food and wine in a rare early edition, including notes by Ibn Sina

IBN SINA (AVICENNA), Maynus de MAYNIS, Arnaldus de VILLANOVA, [Roger BACON] et al. Regimen sanitatis Magnini Mediolanensis ... Insuper opusculu[m] De flebothomia editum ... Reginaldo de Villa Nova. Additur quoq[ue] Astronomia Hippocratis ... de variis egritudinibus et morbis. Item Secreta Hippogratis. Item Averrois De venenis. Ite[m] Quid pro quo apothecariorum ... Nicolaum ... Cum no[n]nullis insuper Avicenne: ...
[Lyon, Barthélemy Trot] (colophon: Lyon, printed by Jacques Myt, 6 February 1517). Small 4to (19 x 14 cm). With title-page in red and black with Trot's woodcut publisher's device, 12 decorated woodcut initials plus 3 repeats. 17th-century(?) calf, gold-tooled spine; rebacked with the original backstrip laid down. CI, [3] ll. Full description
€ 25,000
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First edition of Mantino's Latin translation of book 1, part 4 of Ibn Sina's magnum opus The Canon of Medicine

IBN SINA (AVICENNA) (and Jacob MANTINO, translator). Avicennae quarta fen primi libri de universali ratione medendi: nunc primum. m. Iacob Mantini medici hebrei: opera Latinate donata.
(colophon:) Venice, Lucantonio Giunti, 8 April 1530. 8vo. With Giunti's printer's device on the title page (a Florentine lily with the L. A. initials). Later vellum with more recent end leaves. 60 ll. Full description
€ 8,500
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A commentary on Ibn Sina

[IBN SINA (AVICENNA)]. ODDIS, Oddus de (Oddo degli ODDI). In primam totam fen primi libri canonis Avicenn[a]e dilucidissima & expectatissima expositio. Nunc primum in lucem edita, illustrata, & completa assiduo labore, & longo studio Marci Oddi medici eiusdem filii.
Venice, Paolo and Antonio Meietti, 1575. 4to. With woodcut device on title-page, a woodcut headpiece, 3 large and 17 smaller woodcut decorated initials, and a small woodcut decoration (plus 1 repeat). Contemporary limp vellum, with manuscript title on spine. [8], 499, [33] pp. Full description
€ 7,500
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The standard Mediaeval medical dispensary, with hundreds of recipes

JOHN XXI, Pope. Thesaurus pauperum Petri hispani pontificis romani, philosophi ac medici doctissimi, de medendis morbis humani corporis liber: experimenta particularia per simplicia medicamenta ex probatissimis autoribus, & propriis observationibus collecta, continens.
Frankfurt, heirs of Christian Egenolff, 1576. 8vo. Title-page in red and black, Egenolffs woodcut burning heart device below the colophon, 3 woodcut arabesque tailpieces, and 3 woodcut decorated initials (3 different series). Contemporary limp vellum, faded manuscript title on spine. 112, [7, last 3 pages blank] ll. Full description
€ 3,500
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The standard Mediaeval medical dispensary, with hundreds of recipes

JOHN XXI, Pope. Thesaurus pauperum Petri Hispani pontificis Romani, philosophi ac medici dictissimi, de medendis morbis humani corporis liber: experimenta particularia per simplicia medicamenta ex probatissimis autoribus, & propiis observationibus collecta, continens.
Frankfurt, heirs of Christian Egenolff, 1578 8vo. With title-page in red and black, Egenolffs woodcut burning heart device below the colophon, 3 woodcut arabesque tailpieces, and 3 woodcut decorated initials (3 different series). With the main text in italic type but the preface in roman. Modern half sheepskin. 112, [5] ll. Full description
€ 1,750
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One of the earliest editions of an important and influential book of ca. 250 medicinal recipes:
unrecorded issue of an extremely rare pharmacological edition

LESPLEIGNEY, Thibault. De usu pharmaceutices in consarcinandis medicame[n]tis, Isagoge. ....
[Paris], Jean Ruel, 1543. 16mo (12 x 8 cm). Set in 3 sizes of roman type, the smallest including special pharmacological characters. Modern sheepskin parchment, gilt edges. 229, [11] pp. Full description
€ 7,500
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Rare early edition of a classic commentary on ancient Arabic and Greek pharmacological works

[MANLIO, Giovanni Giacomo (Johannes Jacobus MANLIUS or MANLIIS)]. Luminare maius. Cinthius ut totum radiis illuminat orbem. Illuminat latebras sic medicina tuas.
(Colophon: Venice, Gregorio de Gregori, 8 January 1513). Folio (30.5 x 21 cm). With 13 woodcut decorated initials (6 series?) plus 8 repeats, 4-line typographic "Lombarbic" initials. Set in rotunda gothic types in 2 columns, with a preliminary note in roman type. With contemporary pen decorations in brown ink added to about half of the initials and occasional similar pen decorations in the margins, an occasional manuscript paragraph mark, some rubrications in brown ink and some initials coloured with a transparent ochre wash. Early 20th-century vellum. 77, [2], [1 blank] ll. Full description
€ 28,000
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Exceptionally rare work on Persian heart medicine by a famous 13th-century physician

[MANUSCRIPT - ARABIC]. AL-SAMARQANDI, Najib Al-Din. [Arabic title in red]. [Fi-qawanin tarkib al-adwiyat al-qalbiya, minkalam Mawla-na Najib ad-in al-Samarqandi = Rules for the making of heart drugs from the words of our Revered Master Najib ad-Din al-Samarqandi].
[Iran/ Iraq?], (colophon:) 11 Rabi ath-Thani 894 AH [= March 1489 CE]. 8vo. Arabic manuscript written in black ink, rubricated throughout, in a small and neat naskh Arabic hand (19 lines per page with corresponding blind ruling visible in the paper). 18th-century(?) sprinkeled brown calf with a gold- and red-tooled arabesque center-piece on both boards, modern reddish-brown calf spine. [4] pp. Full description
€ 12,000
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Important poem on the magical and medicinal qualities of precious stones

MARBODE (MARBODIUS) of Rennes. De gemmarum lapidumq[ue] pretiosorum formis, naturis, atq[ue] viribus eruditu[m] cu[m] primis opusculu[m], ... scholiis q[uo]q[ue] illustratu[m] p[er] Alardu[m] Aemstelredamu[m].
Cologne, Hero Alopecius [Fuchs], 1539. 8vo. With a woodcut illustration on the title-page, representing a Jewish priest behind a board with the names of 12 stones which represent the 12 tribes of Israel. 17th-century gold-tooled red morocco, richly gold-tooled spinel, gold-tooled fillets and small cornerpieces on both boards, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins. 124, [2] ll. Full description
€ 12,500
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Five ancient pharmacological, medical and botanical texts, well produced

MARCELLUS EMPIRICUS. De medicamentis Empiricis physicis ac rationalibus liber.
Basel, Froben, 1536. With a woodcut caduceus device on title-page and several woodcut initials. Set in roman types.
With: (2) [THORER, Alban]. [De re medica].
(Colophon: Basel, Andreas Cratander, 1528). With the first leaf of the main text in a 4-piece woodcut border (3 initalled I.F.), Cratander's woodcut device on the last otherwise blank leaf, showing Occasio, the goddess of chance, and dozens of charming woodcut initials. Set in roman types. 2 works in 1 volume. Small folio (30 x 22 cm). 20th-century half parchment. 252, [12]; 125, [1] ll. Full description
€ 25,000
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Venice edition of Ibn Masawaih's pharmacological handbook with a false Paris imprint

MASAWAIH AL-MARDINI (MESUE the younger). De re medica libri tres. Jacobo Sylvio medico interprete. Cum annotationibus & scholiis eiusdem. Index locupletissimus cum capitum, tum omnium quae scitu digna sunt operi praefixus est.
"Paris" [= Venice], [Girolamo Scotto], 1553. 8vo. With Scottos woodcut device on the title-page (showing what are probably two of the wild mares of King Abderus being devoured by the mares of King Diomedes of Thrace devouring either Abderos or Diomedes himself) and about 22 woodcut decorated (nearly all pictorial) initials (7 series) plus a few repeats. Contemporary vellum, traces of ties. 248, [4] ll. Full description
€ 7,500
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The best 16th-century work on syphilis, by the translator of Avicenne's (Ibn Sina) biography

MASSA, Niccolò. Liber de morbo Gallico: noviter editus: in quo omnes modi possibiles sanandi ipsum: mira quadam & artificiosa doctrina continentur: ... Addita est epistola ad eximium Thomam Cademustum in qua quamplurima ad perfectionem operis totius, & multarum aliarum egritudinum curam leguntur.
(Colophon: Venice, Francesco Bindoni, Maffeo Pasini, May) 1536. 4to. With title in a woodcut architectural border showing 4 charming monsters, 6 sentries and a winged putto. 19th-century panel-stamped and blind-tooled parchment. 50, [1], 1 blank] ll. Full description
€ 7,500
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Second edition of the first volume of Mercuriale's medical advice to his patients

MERCURIALE, Girolamo. Liber responsorum et consultationum medicinalium. Nunc primùm á Michaele Columbo collectus & in lucem editus.
Basel, Conrad Valdkirch, 1588. With a woodcut arabesque tailpiece and decorated initials, a headpiece and other decorations built up from arabesque typographic ornaments.
With: VALLERIOLE, François. Observationum medicinalium lib. VI. Denuo editi, & emendatiores quàm antea in lucem emissi: in quibus multorum gravissimorum morborum historiae, eorundem causae, syntomata atque eventus, tum etiam curationes miro, utili & compendioso ordine describuntur.
Lyon, Antoine Blanc [printed in Geneva?], 1588. With Blancs woodcut device on the title-page, woodcut decorated initials and headpieces built up from typographic ornaments.
8vo. 17th-century overlapping vellum over boards, manuscript title on spine. [24], 502, [16]; [24], 524, [32] pp. Full description
€ 1,750
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Mesue in Italian - the third known (second complete) copy

MASAWAIH AL-MARDINI (MESUE the younger). Opus quibuslibet aromatariis: necessariu[m]. Mesue in vulgare rescripto. Primo che se rechercha allarte della aromataria como se conosseno le medicine simplice & composte li quattro canone p[er] arte in vulgare declarate alla antidotario: li dubie al configere qlle resolute.
[Napels or Venice, ca. 1500?]. 4to (14.5 x 19.8 cm). Half calf over marbled boards [ca. 1900], gold-tooled spine, gold-tooled red spine label, red sprinkled edges. [34] ll. Full description
€ 45,000
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by the esteemed Arabic physician Masawaih al-Mardini">"The most popular compendium of drugs in medieval Europe"
by the esteemed Arabic physician Masawaih al-Mardini

MESUE the younger (MASAWAIH AL-MARDINI). Opera. De medicamentorum purgantium delectu, castigatione, & usu, libri duo ...
Venice, Lucantonio Giunta, 1581. 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio (23 x 34 cm). With 39 woodcut illustrations in the text. Near-contemporary vellum, black morocco spine label with title in gold. [8], 272; [6], 277, [1 blank], [12] ll. Full description
€ 8,500
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Rare first editions of an Aleppo dialogue on medicinal barley infusions (1584/91)
and a surgical handbook (1612)

MINADOI, Giovanni Tommaso. Philodicus, sive Dialogus de ptisana, ...
Venice, "ad signum Leonis" [= heirs of Curzio Troiano Navò], 1591 [all but the prelims printed by Francesco Osanna, Mantua, 1584]. With title-page in an illustrated woodcut border (showing equipment for distilling, forging and other trades plus in a cartouche at the foot Navò's rampant lion device).
With: (2) PARMA, Ippolito. Introductionis ad chirurgiam libri duo. ...
Padova, Pietro Paolo Tozzi (printed by Lorenzo Pasquato), 1612. With Tozzi's(?) woodcut Minerva device on the title-page. 2 works in 1 volume. 4to. Half calf (French, ca. 1750), gold-tooled spine. [8], 124, [2 blank]; [8], 196 pp. Full description
€ 12,500
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Haskell Norman copy of "the most complete collection of early writings on balneology" by several classical, Arabic and contemporary authorities

[MINERAL BATHS - BALNEOLOGY]. De balneis omnia quae extant apud Graecos, Latinos, et Arabas, tam medicos quàm quoscunque caeterarum artium probatos scriptores: qui vel integris libris, vel quoquo alio modo hanc materiam tractauerunt: nuper hinc inde accurate conquisita & excerpta, atque in vnum tandem hoc volumen redacta. In quo aquarum ac thermarum omnium, quae in toto ferè orbe terrarum sunt, metallorum item, & reliquorum mineralium naturae, vires, atque vsus exquisitissime explicantur: indicibus quatuor appositis, ...
Venice, (colophon:) heirs of Lucantonio Giunta [= Tomasso Giunta], 1553. Folio. With 5 full-page woodcuts with plans and views of mineral baths and a woodcut title vignette and initials. 18th-century vellum, manuscript title on spine. 14; 497 ll. Full description
€ 6,500
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First edition, beautifully produced, of a very popular and influential book of secrets

MIZAULD, Antoine. Memorabilium, utiliu[m], ac jucundorum centuriae novem, in aphorismos arcanorum omnis generis locupletes, perpulchrè digestae.
Paris, Fédéric Morel, 1566. 8vo. With Morel's woodcut tree device on the title-page, 2 woodcut headpieces and 7 woodcut decorated initials (plus 3 repeats), the headpieces and initials in an unusually delicate design, finely executed. Set in italic types with the preliminaries in roman, and incidental Greek. 17th-century limp sheepskin parchment. [16], 136 pp. Full description
€ 2,250
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Two Hellenistic hexametric poems on antidotes to poisons

NICANDER of Colophon. Theriaca.
Including:
NICANDER of Colophon. Alexipharmaca.
-In Nicander Theriaca scholia auctoris incerti, et vetusta et utilia. In eiusdem Alexipharmaca diversorum auctorum scholia.
Paris, Morelius, 1557. 3 parts in 1 volume. 4to. Each part with its own title-page, with a woodcut caduceus device on all three. Set in roman and Greek types. 17th-century(?) richly gold-tooled red morocco, gilt edges; subtly rebacked, with the original backstrip laid down. [8], “225”[=215], [1 blank]; “80”[=72] pp. Full description
€ 5,000
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The first European botanical work describing Indian herbs and diseases

ORTA, Garcia de, Nicolás MONARDES and others. Dell'historia dei semplici aromati, et altre cose: che vengono portate dall'Indie Orientali pertinenti all'uso della medicina.
Venice, Francesco Ziletti, 1589. 2 volumes bound as 1, the first in 4 parts and the second in 2 parts. 8vo. With a woodcut printer's device on the title-page of volume 1 and the divisional title page of volume 2, 28 woodcut illustrations in text.Later yellow painted (sheepskin) parchment. [32], 347, [5], 131, [13] pp. Full description
€ 5,250
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Pills, cheese and medical ethics in the 15th-century

PANTALEONE DI CONFIENZA (CONFLUENTIA). Pillularium omnibus medicis quam necessarium ... Summa lacticiniorum completa omnibus idonea.
Including: ZERBI, Gabriele. Cautele medicorum no[n] inutiles.
(Colophon: Lyon, Antoine Blanchard [and Laurent Hyllaire], 7 January 1525[=1526]). Small 4to (20 x 14 cm). Title-page with a 4-piece woodcut border (using material from Laurent Hylaire). Modern limp sheepskin parchment. XXXVIII, [2] ll. Full description
€ 8,500
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4 editions (1528-1531) containing 6 works on pharmacology, herbal medicine and magical gems,
in blind-tooled pigskin (near Freiburg ca. 1570?)

PAULUS OF AEGINA (ed. by Otto BRUNFELS and Wilhelm KOPP). Pharmaca simplicia, Orthone Brunfelsio interprete.
Including: De ratione victus Gukielmo Copo Basiliensi interprete.
(Colophon: Strasbourg, Georg Ulricher, September 1531). With a finely executed woodcut on the title-page repeated on the verso of the otherwise blank last leaf.
With:
(2) VALLA, Giorgio. De simplicium natura liber unus.
Strasbourg, Heinrich Sybold, (colophon: August 1528). With the title in a woodcut architectural frame.
(3) ODO OF MEUNG (misattributed to Aemilius MACER). De herbarum virtutibus, cum Joannis Atrociani co[m]mentariis, ...
Including: STRABO, Walafrid. Hortulus vernantissimus.
Freiburg im Breisgau, (colophon: Johann Faber, 1530).
(4) MARBOD OF ANJOU (with notes and additions by Georg PICTORIUS). De lapidibus pretiosis encheridion, cum scholiis Pictorii Villingensis. Eiusdem Pictorii De lapide molari carmen.
[Freiburg im Breisgau], [Johan Faber], 1531. With a woodcut initial with pictorial decoration. Set in an Aldine-style italic.
4 editions containing 6 works, in 1 volume. 8vo (16.5 x 11 cm). Blind -tooled pigskin (Freibrug or vicinity? ca. 1570?) over tapered wooden boards, each board with fields edged by multiple fillets, the outer field containing a frame made from a large roll with allegorical female figures representing the four theological virtues. The front board with owner's initials "A W", and with 2 engraved brass fastenings. [12], 86, [1 blank], [1]; [104]; [4], 108; 55, [1] ll. Full description
€ 45,000
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Enlarged Plantin issue of a pioneering classic of botany, with about 307 excellent woodcuts

PENA, Pierre and Matthias de LOBEL. Nova stirpium adversaria.
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1576. Small folio, index large 4to (29 x 20 cm). Title-page with an elaborately decorated woodcut architectural frame and about 307 (of about 317) woodcut botanical illustrations. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [4], 471, [1 blank], 15, [1 blank], 24, [12 (of 16)] pp. Full description
€ 12,500
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Pliny's Natural history, annotated by the Italian scholar Hermolaus Barberus

PLINIUS SECUNDUS, Gaius. Opus divinum, cui titulus historiae naturalis, multoqua[m] antehac unqua[m] prodiit in luce[m] castigatius, una cu[m] annotationibus Hermanolai Barbari ...
Paris, Jean Petit (colophon: Nicolaus Sauetier), 1526. 2 parts in 1 volume (bound in reverse order). Folio. With title-page to the main work (bound second) printed in red and black and title-page to the index (bound first), each in a four-piece woodcut border. Contemporary or near contemporary calf, with the boards richly blind-tooled in a panel design; rebacked with part of the original backstrip laid down. [188], [34], "CCCCCXXXVI" [= CCCCCXXXVIII] pp. Full description
€ 18,000
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A little-known medical treatise from one of the greatest minds in the history of medicine

RAZI, Abu Bakr Muhammaed ibn Zakariyya al-. [RHAZES]. Taqasim al-ilal. [= Classification of diseases].
Western Persia, 996 AH [= 1588 CE]. 2 volumes. Tall 8vo (18.5 x 10 cm). Arabic manuscript on paper. Black naskh script with important words and phrases picked out in red. Stored in a custom-made red cloth box, disbound, originally bound as one. 109; 89 ll. Full description
€ 65,000
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First edition of a seminal judicial and medical work on the plague, printed at Avignon in 1522

RIVA DI SAN NAZARRO, Gianfrancesco. Iura interpretantis in flore[n]ti achademia Avenionensi ad cives Avenionenses de peste libri tres.
[Colophon:] Avignon, Jean de Channey, 12 September 1522. 4to. With the title in a 4-piece woodcut border (white on black), a woodcut illustration of the author presenting a book to the dedicatee on the verso of the title-pageWith numerous woodcut decorated initials (at least 3 series) throughout the text. Later overlapping vellum. [28], CLXII, [1] ll. Full description
€ 11,500
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First edition of “the first actual dispensatory”, with 271 numbered medicines

SCRIBONIUS LARGUS ( Jean RUEL ed.). De compositionibus medicamentorum liber unus, ...
(Colophon: Paris, Simon Du Bois, October 1528). Folio (29 x 20 cm). With Du Bois's woodcut tree and 2 birds device at the end with motto, about 40 woodcut decorated initials (7 series?) plus about 100 repeats. Set in roman types with some preliminaries in an Aldine-style italic (with upright capitals) and occasional words in Greek. Recent parchment. [9], [1 blank], 31, [5] ll. Full description
€ 12,500
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The most important classical dictionary of its time, bound with the rare first and only edition
of a polemic against medical malpractice

TORRENTINUS, Hermannus (Herman van der BEKE). Elucidarius poeticus continens historias poeticas, fabulas, insulas, regiones, urbes, fluvios, montesq[ue] insigniores, atq[ue] huiusmodi alia, omnib[us] adolescentibus in poesi versantibus oppidoquam necessarius, ...
Cologne, Eucharius Cervicornus (colophon: Godefried Hittorp), July 1529. With the title in an elaborate woodcut architectural border with the Cologne coat of arms in the head, the death of Cleopatra in the foot, further figures in the right and left sides and 3 putti, one holding a shield with a monogram or mark, perhaps of the artist or woodblock cutter. Set in roman types with 8 and 14 mm roman capitals used as initials.
With: (2) FREUDENBERG, Aethon Johann von. De abusu & impostura medicantiu[m] libellus perquam utilis jucundusq[ue] omnibus, quibus cum medicis erit negocium.
Marburg, Eucharius Cervicornus, 1538. With 1 woodcut decorated initial (white on black with floral decoration) and a vine-leaf ornament (Vervliet 7). Set in roman type with the dedication in an Aldine-style italic and with occasional words in Greek.
2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. Sheepskin parchment (ca. 1700?), sewn on 4 supports, red edges, first title lettered in ink in the second spine compartment. [85], [1 blank]; [23] ll. Full description
€ 10,000
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Greek and Arabic physicians on pathology and therapeutics

IBN SARABIYUN, Yahya (SERAPIO the elder). Iani Damasceni Decapolitani summae inter Arabes autoritatis medici, Therapeutice methodi, hoc est, curandi artis Libri VII. partim Albano Torino Vitodurano paraphraste, partim Gerardo iatro Cremonensi metaphraste.
Basel, Heinrich Petri, (colophon: March 1543). Folio (20.5 x 29 cm). 17th century black vellum, made from an earlier liturgical music manuscript. [24], 491, [1] pp. Full description
€ 18,000
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