Early Leiden edition of an important work on Egyptian medicine, written by the Venetian physician and botanist Prosper Alpinus (1553-1617). The present work includes a work on tropical medicine by Dutch physician Jacob de Bondt (or Jacobus Bontius, 1592-1631), which can only be found in the Dutch editions of Medicine Aegyptiorum, and a text by Alpinus (De rhapontico) which can only be found in the present edition.
Medicine Aegyptiorum was first published in Venice in 1591, then three times in Paris in 1645-1646, and then in Leiden in 1718, where it was combined with De Bondt's work for the first time. The present edition is a re-issue of the 1718 edition, but with a new title page and an extra part. This extra part, De rhapontico, had been published separately in 1612, but was not published again until it was included in the present work. It discusses the therapeutic properties of rhubarb and is written in the form of a dialogue between Alpinus, an Egyptian physician, and a Jew. The other work by Alpinus included here, De balsamo dialogus, discusses the source of balsam and raises questions concerning its identity, ancient names and medical uses. It is written in the same format as De rhapontico.
The final text included here is De medicina Indorum, libri IV by De Bondt, which had been separately published in 1642. De Bondt, who regarded tropical medicine as an independent branch of medical science, spend several years in the Dutch East Indies where he studied the local medical practices. The work includes the first European description of beriberi and cholera.
The head of the spine is somewhat worn, with a horizontal tear in the vellum obscuring the manuscript title, a brown stain on the back board. The pastedowns are detached from the boards, but the structural integrity of the binding is still intact, the edges of the leaves are slightly browned, the last few leaves are stained at the bottom margin from the brown stain on the back board. Otherwise in good condition. Blake, p. 12; STCN 227919599 (3 copies), Wellcome II, p. 36; cf. DSB I, pp. 124-125; Garrison & Morton 6468 (other ed.); STCN separate entries for ad 2: 227919971 (6 copies), ad 3: 227920112 (6 copies), ad 4: 181937085 (5 copies).