Facets

c. 512

#6816

Vienna Dioscorides. Codex Vindobonensis Med. Gr. 1.

The oldest surviving copy of Pedanius Dioscorides's treatise on medical botany and pharmacology, De materia medica, is an illuminated Byzantine manuscript produced about 512 CE. Dioscorides, a Greek physician, who may…

c. 850

#6900

The Syriac Galen palimpsest.

This ninth century palimpsest codex contains as its undertext a text of Galen's On Simple Drugs in the Syriac translation by Sergius of Reshaina. It has not yet been formally published. For further information see the…

1469

#89

Historia naturalis, libri XXXVII.

The most ancient Western encyclopedia extant, Pliny’s Historia contained essentially all that was known in his time concerning geography, mineralogy, anthropology, botany, zoology and meteorology. Books XX-XXXII deal …

1469

#9635

De officiis. Add: Paradoxa Stoicorum; Laelius, sive de amicitia; Cato maior, sive de senectute.

Of the 71 editions of Cicero's classical work on aging and death printed in the 15th century, Cato major de senectute, the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue cites 71, indicating the extreme popularity of Cicero's works…

1472

#9400

Aristotle's De anima with the commentary of Averroes.

"Each paragraph of the text of Aristotle is printed in a new and an old translation, and is followed by the commentary of Averroes on the latter (BMC)" (ISTC No. IDia00969000). Because of the supreme position of Arist…

1473

#88

De rerum natura.

The work is a reasoned system of philosophy written in verse. Book V attempts an explanation of the origin of the universe and life, and the gradual advance of man from the savage state. All these topics are treated f…

1476

#52

Articella seu opus artis medicinae. Con: Johannitius: Isagoge ad tegni Galeni. Philaretus: De pulsibus; Theophilus Protospatharius: De urinis. Hippocrates: Aphorismi (comm: Galenus; tr: Constantinus Africanus); Prognostica (comm: Galenus); De regimine acutorum morborum (comm: Galenus; tr: Gerardus Cremonensis). Galenus: Liber Tegni, sive Ars medica (comm: Hali; tr: Gerardus Cremonensis).

A collection of Greek, Roman and Byzantine texts on medicine, written in Latin, that was mainly used as medical school textbook or reference manual between the 13th and 16th centuries. The Articella grew around a synt…

1478

#20

De medicina. Ed: Bartholomaeus Fontius.

De Medicina is the oldest Western medical document after the Hippocratic writings. Written about 30 CE, it remains the greatest medical treatise from ancient Rome, and the first Western history of medicine. Celsus’s s…

1478

#6934

De materia medica. Ed: Petrus de Abano. Comm: Petrus de Abano.

The first printed edition of Dioscorides, translator unidentified. A Greek physician from Anazarbus in Cilicia (now Turkey), Dioscorides traveled to the Greek mainland, to Crete, Egypt and Petra. He is believed to hav…

1478

#7086

Halieutica, sive de piscatu. [Translated by Lorenzo Lippi, with recipes for cooking added by Lippi.]

The didactic poem on fish and fishing by Oppian of Anazarbus, a 2nd-century Greco-Roman poet, survived the Middle Ages essentially in its entirety, consisting of 3500 lines in Greek. The poem was dedicated to the empe…

1479

#17

Opera. In four parts dated: I) 15 Sept. 1479; II) 13 Oct. 1479; III) 21 Oct. 1479; IV) 8 Nov. 1479. Contents: [I] Praedicamenta, De interpretatione, Analytica priora (Tr: Boethius). Add: Porphyrius: Isagoge in Aristotelis Praedicamenta (Tr: Boethius). Gilbertus Porretanus: Liber sex principiorum. Boethius: Divisiones. [II] Analytica posteriora (Tr: Jacobus Veneticus). [III] Sophistici elenchi, Topica (Tr: Boethius). [IV] Physica (Tr: Guilelmus de Moerbeka).

Aristotle, at one time tutor to Alexander the Great, was, among other things, the first observational biologist, and the founder of comparative anatomy. His views had a profound influence in determining the direction …

1481

#6313

Liber ad Almansorem sive Tractatus medicinae I-X. Add: Liber divisionum; De aegritudinibus juncturarum; De aegritudinibus puerorum; De secretis sive aphorismi; De sectionibus et ventosis; Synonyma. Galenus: De medicinis experimentatis. Mesue (the elder): Aphorismi. Hippocrates: secreta; Capsula eburnea; De humana natura; De aere et aqua et regionibus; De pharmaciis. Tabula de herbis medicis.

Rhazes was the first to devote an entire treatise to diseases of children. Although he lived so many years before the advent of printing, he was still regarded as an authority in the 15th century and his works were am…

c. 1481 –c. 1482

#6811

Herbarium Apulei.

The first printed herbal with illustrations was an illustrated edition of the Herbarium Apulei by Apuleius Platonicus or Pseudo-Apuleius, originally compiled circa 400 CE or earlier, and issued in Rome by the printer …

1481

#6929

De natura hominis. Add: De victu; De tuenda valetudine; Medicinae lex; Iusiurandum; Demonstratio quod artes sunt; Invectiva in obtrectatores medicinae. Tr: Andreas Brentius.

The writings of Hippocrates began to appear in print in the 1480s, and only a few of the works attributed to Hippocrates were printed in the 15th century. Though the date of this edition is unstated within the book it…

1483

#1783

De historia et causis plantarum. Edited, with a table, by Georgius Merula. Translated by Theodorus Gaza.

A student of Aristotle, Theophrastus succeeded his teacher as head of the Athens Peripatetic School. This is the earliest work of scientific botany, a subject not addressed in any of the writings of Aristotle. Theophr…

1483

#6813

De divisione librorum Galeni IN: Articella seu Opus artis medicinae.

Considering the central importance of Galen's writings in medicine from the time he wrote well through the sixteenth and even the seventeenth century, and the need for physicians to make sense of such a large number o…

1483

#9399

Opera. With the commentary of Averroes. Edited by Nicoletus Vernia. 8 parts.

First edition of the collected works of Aristotle with the commentaries of Averroes, by which Aristotle was mainly studied during the Middle Ages. The purpose of Vernia's edition was to provide an accurate edition of …

1487

#1589

Frontinus: De aquaeductibus. Edited by Pomponius Laetus and Johannes Sulpitius Verulanus.

De aquaeductibus, or De aquis urbis Romae was written about 100 CE by the Roman senator Frontinus. Its title is sometimes translated as The Aquaducts of Rome, and most recently by Rodgers as On the Water-Management of…

1490

#8438

Galeni Opera. Edited by Diomedes Bonardus. Translated from the Greek by Nicolaus de Regio, Marcus Toletanus, Petrus de Abano, Accursius Pistoriensis, Guilelmus de Moerbeka, Burgundio of Pisa, Gerardus Cremonensis and Constantinus Africanus. With poem to the author of Johannes Pyrrhus Pincius. 2 vols.

The first printed edition of Galen's writings pulled together texts from numerous translators. ISTC No. ig00037000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

1495 –1498

#8395

Aristotle. [Opera omnia]. 5 vols.

Between November 1495 and June 1498 scholar printer Aldus Manutius (Teobaldo Mannucci) of Venice issued the first edition in the original Greek of Aristotle's Opera omnia. The set appeared in five thick quarto or smal…

1497

#39.1

Rhazes: Liber ad Almansorem sive Tractatus medicinae I-X. Liber divisionum. De aegritudinibus juncturarum. De aegritudinibus puerorum. De secretis sive aphorismi. Antidotarium. De praeservatione ab aegritudine lapidis; Introductorium medicinae. De sectionibus et ventosis. Synonyma. De animalibus. Add:Tabula de herbis medicis; Maimonides: Aphorismi; Mesue (the elder): Aphorismi; Hippocrates: Secreta; Prognosticatio secundum lunam; Capsula eburnea; De humana natura; De aere et aqua et regionibus; De pharmaciis; De insomniis; Avenzohar: De cura lapidis.

The best edition of the Opuscula of Rhazes, containing the second printing of the celebrated Liber ad Almansorem, not to be confused with Liber nonus ad Almansorem, as well as De aegritudine puerorum (No. 6313), and o…

1499

#2069

Dioscorides, De materia medica [Greek]. Add: Pseudo- Dioscorides, De venenis, De venenatis animalibus [Greek]; Add: Nicander, Theriaca; Add: Alexipharmaca; Scholia [Greek].

Nicander was a Greek poet and physician. His Theriaca, in 958 hexameters, dealt with the symptoms and treatment of poisoning by the bites of poisonous animals; the Alexipharmaca considered intoxications through animal…

1500

#53

Aphorismi secundum doctrinam Galeni. Add: Johannes Damascenus [Mesue?]: Aphorismi. Hippocrates: Secreta; Prognosticatio secundum lunam; Capsula eburnea; De humana natura; De aere et aqua et regionibus; De pharmaciis; De insomniis. Avenzohar: De curatione lapidis.

An edition of the Latin translation of Maimonides’ Aphorismi (first published, Venice, 1489), together with a compilation of the works of Mesue, Avenzoar, Galen, etc. Page for page reprint, Venice, 1508. See No. 6495.…

1500

#11081

Methodus medendi [and Ad Glauconem.]

Klebs 433.1. These were the first genuine texts of Galen published in print in the original Greek.

1504

#34

Practica Alexandri yatros greci cum expositione glose interlinearis Jacobi de Partibus et Januensis in margine posite.

First printing of an incomplete medieval Latin translation by Jacques Despars of the main medical work of Alexander, a Byzantine physician from Tralles in Lydia, Asia Minor (now Aydin, Turkey). Digital facsimile from …

1509

#8445

Medicinae Pliniae libri quinque finiunt foeliciter.

The Medicina Plinii was an anonymous compilation of remedies dating to the early 4th century CE ."The excerptor, saying that he speaks from experience, offers the work as a compact resource for travelers in dealing wi…

1512

#571

Divini Gregorii Nyssae episcopi qui fuit frater Basilii Magni libri octo. I. De homine. II. De anima. III. De elementis. IIII. De viribus animae. V. De voltario etinuoltario. VI. De fato. VII. De libero arbitrio. VIII. De prouidentia.

Nemesius’ De natura hominis, a physiological and psychological study of man, was highly esteemed during the Middle Ages. Nemesius, who wrote in the 4th century CE, was one of the first to propose that mental processes…

1513

#2269

Galen: De affectorum locorum notitia libri vi.

First separate dated Latin translation of De locis affectis, made by Wilhelm Copp of Basel. In this work devoted to pathology, Galen made many valuable deductions on inflammation and on tumors. He was familiar with ch…

1514

#2664

Galen: De differentiis morborum libri ii…

First Renaissance Latin translation by Niccolò Leoniceno of Vicenza of Galen's work on physical diagnosis.

1517

#6944

Galeni de sanitate tuenda libri sex.

First separate dated Latin translation of Galen's De sanitate tuenda (On the preservation of health), which contained his views on maintaining health and hygiene and preventing disease. Translated from the Greek by Th…

1517

#7111

Oppianou Alieuticon biblia pente. Tou autou Kynegetikon biblia tessara. Oppiani De piscibus libri V. Eiusdem De venatione libri IV. Oppiani De piscibus Laurentio Lippio interprete libri V.

First edition in print of Oppian of Apamea's Cynegetica (Κυνηγετικά/KynÄ“getiká, 'On Hunting' ), a didactic poem in 2144 hexameters and 4 books, dedicated to the emperor Caracalla (Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus A…

1519

#1959

Galeni methodus medendi, vel de morbis curandis.

The first separately published Latin translation from the Greek by Thomas Linacre. Galen's Method of medicine was a systematic and comprehensive account of the principles of treating injury and disease and one of Gale…

1522

#2665

De morborum symptomatis.

This volume of Galen’s selected works includes Thomas Linacre’s Latin translation of De symptomatum differentiis.

1525

#27

Librorum pars prima [-quinta] … 5 vols.

Greek editio princeps of Galen's complete works in Greek, edited by the Paduan professor G. B. Oppizzoni [Opizo] with the help of John Clement , Edward Wotton, William Rose (ca. 1490-1525), and Thomas Lupset, all Engi…

1525

#6815

Peri ton idion biblion [Latin: De Libris propriis liber, On his own writings] and Peri tes taxeos ton idion biblion [Latin: De ordine librorum suorum liber, On the arrangement of his own writings]. IN: Galeni librorum pars prima-quinta, Part IV.

The extent of Claudius Galen's written work was so great that Galen himself felt the need to provide a bibliography organizing and explaining his own writings. He also felt the need to distinguish between works that h…

1525

#6820

Hippocratis Coi medicorum omnium longe principis, octoginta volumnia quibus maxima ex parte, annorum circiter duo millia Latina caruit lingua. . . .translated by Marco Fabio Calvo

The first collected edition of the Hippocratic collection in the Latin translation of Marco Fabio Calvo of Ravenna, dedicated to Pope Clement VII. "This volume, which preceded the first, Aldine, edition of the Greek t…

1526

#6931

Opera omnia.

First edition of the Greek text of the works of Hippocrates, issued by Aldus Manutius of Venice one year after the first complete edition in Latin was issued in Rome. The Aldine text was edited by Aldus's brother-in-l…

1526

#9079

Hippocratis Coi medicorum omnium longe principis, opera: quibus maxima ex parte annorum circiter duo millia Latina caruit lingua: Graeci vero & Arabes, & prisci nostri Medici, plurimis tamen utilibus prætermissis, scripta sua illustrarunt: nunc tandem per M. Fabiu Rhauennatem, Gulielmum Copum Basiliensem, Nicolaum Leonicenu & Andream Brentium, viros doctissimos Latinate donata, ac iamprimu in lucem aedita: quo revera humano generi nihil fieri potuit salubrius.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1528

#36

In principio singulorum librorum omnia indicantur, quae in eo libro continentur. [Title in Greek and Latin].

Paul of Aegiina was the most famous physician and surgeon in the Byzantine Empire during the seventh century, and probably thereafter. According to Eugene F. Rice, "Paulus Aegineta", Catalogus translationum et comment…

1528

#1785

De compositionibus medicamentorum liber unus

Written in 47 CE, this is an important compilation of drugs and prescriptions. Among the 271 remedies are the first use of electrotherapy (for headaches) using the shock of the torpedo fish. and it records the drinkin…

1528

#8427

Vegetii Renati Artis veterinariae, sive mulomedicinae libri quatuor, iam primum typis in lucem aediti.

The earliest surviving work on veterinary medicine, by a writer from Late Antiquity, presumably in the Western Roman Empire. Digital facsimile from BayerischeStaatsbibliothek at this link.

1528

#13148

Claudii Galeni ... Liber de plenitudine. Polybus De salubri victus ratione privatorum. Guinterio Ioanne Andernaco interprete. Apuleius Platonicus De herbarum virtutibus. Antonii Benivenii Libellus de abditis nonnullis ac mirandis morboru & sanitationum causis.

First separate edition of Galen's Liber de plenitudine and Polybus's De salubri victus ratione privatorum, edited by Johan Guinter von Andernach. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

1529

#1959.1

Caelii Aureliani Siccensis Tardarum passionum libri V. D. Oribasii Sardi Iuliani Caesaris archiatri Euporiston lib: III. Medicinae comperi: lib: 1. Curationum lib: 1. Trochiscoru confect: lib: 1.

From a clinical point of view, the two works of Caelius Aurelianus, which were translated into Latin from Greek originals by Soranus of Ephesus that were later lost, represent the high-point of Graeco-Roman medical ac…

1529

#9349

Galeni Pergameni libri anatomici, quorum indicem versa patina indicabit. Edited by Giacomo Berengario da Carpi.

First printed edition in Latin of Galen's De anatomicis administrationis, as translated from the Greek by Demetrios Chalkokondyles under the title De anatomicis aggressionibus. Other works in this collection edited by…

1530

#11083

De compositione medicamentorum... lib VII per Ioannem Guinterium Andernacum imprimum latinitate donati. Eiusdem De ponderibus & mensuris liber, D. Andrea Alciato interprete.

First separate edition in Latin of Galen's De compositione medicamentorum, On the Composition of medicines, translated by Johann Winter of Andernach, to which was added Galen's treatise on weights and measures transla…

1531

#359

De anatomicis administrationibus libri novem.

First separate printed edition in Latin, translated by Johann Guinter von Andernach, of Galen's dissection manual, in which Galen both described his dissection techniques and described anatomical details that were pre…

1532

#9011

Octavii Horatiani reum medicarum Lib. Quatuor. I. Logicus, De curationibus omnium ferme morborum corporis humani, ad Euporistum. II. De acutis & chronicis passionibus, ad eundem. III. Gynecia, De mulierum accidentibus, & curis eorundem, ad Victoriam. IIII. De physica scientia, experimentorum liber, ad Eusebium filium. Albucasis. chirurgicorum omium primarii, lib. tres. I. De cauterio cum igne, & medicins acutis per singula corporis humani membra. Cum instrumentorum delimatione. II. De sectione & perforatione, phlebotomia, & ventosis. De vulternibus, & extractione sagittaru, & certeris similibus. Cum formis instrumentorum. III. De restuartione & curatione, dislocationis membrorum. Cum typis item instrumentorum.

In this, the first printed edition of Rerum medicarum libri quatuor by the late antique Byzantine physician Theodorus Priscianus, his work was misattributed to Octavianus Horatianus. Digital facsimile from Google Book…

1533 –1534

#6974

Aetii Amideni quem alii Antiochenum vocant medici clarissimi libri XVI. tomos divisi : quorum primus & ultimus Ioan. Baptista Montano Veronensi medico, secundus Iano Cornario Zuiccauiensi, & ipso medicinae professore, interpretibus latinitate donati sunt. In quo opere cuncta quae ad curandi artem pertinent congesta sunt, ex omnibus qui usq[ue] ad eius tempora scripserant, diligentissime excerpta. Additus est index in omneis tomos copiosissimus. 3 vols.

J. B. Montanus and Janus Cornarius prepared the first edition of Aetius's collected works in Latin translation. That edition was the first to include Aetius's writings on obstetrics, which epitomized all previous know…

1533

#8952

Ex Aeliani historia per Petrum Gyllium latini facti, itemque ex Porphyrio, Heliodoro, Oppiano: Tum eodem Gyllio luculentis accessionibus aucti libri XVI. De ui & natura animalium. Eiusdem Gyllij liber unus, de gallicis & latinis nominibus piscium.

Editio princeps of Aelianus's late antique work on natural history. Along with Aelianus's text Gyllius included his own “Liber summarius de Gallicis et Latinis nominibus piscium Massiliensium” [Book on the French and …

1533

#9366

Caelii Aureliani methodici Sicensis liber celerum vel acutarum passionum, qua licuit diligentia recognitus, atque nunc primum in lucem aeditus.

Caelius's / Soranus's Treatise on acute diseases, edited by Johannes Guinter von Andernach. From a clinical point of view, the two works of Caelius Aurelianus, which were translated into Latin from Greek originals by …