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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.
€ 1,750
Second Egenolff edition in the original Latin, of a mediaeval collection of medicinal recipes intended, as the title "Treasury for the Poor" suggests, to provide readily available and inexpensive remedies to common ailments, probably for medical practitioners of modest means, students and (when they were at least able to read Latin) common people who might need to take care of their own ailments. One of the most important sources for Mediaeval pharmacology, it makes much use of animal parts and common plants and gives a very intimate picture of medical practices among the common people from Mediaeval times until far into the Renaissance.
Beginning with a German edition of 1537, Christian Egenolff and his heirs were the leading publishers. As far as we know, their first Latin edition appeared in 1576 and this is their second.
Owner's notations in ink in margins, some browning and thumbing throughout. Lacking leaf with colophon. Good copy. Durling 2596; Thorndike II, pp. 488-513; USTC 697013; VD16, J674; cf. Hagelin, Materia medica, p. 23 (1525 Lyon ed.).
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Early printing & manuscripts  >  Medicine & Pharmacy
Medicine & pharmacy  >  Medicine & Pharmacy pre 1700 | Pharmacology / Pharmacopoeia