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. 830

#9042

Sammelband: Vita Sancti Symeonis; Physiologus latinus; Fredegarii Chronicon; Sermo S. Effrem; etc. Burgerbibliothek Codex Bongarsianus 318.

The earliest surviving illustrated manuscript version of the Physiologus. Digital facsimile of the codex from e-codices.unifr.ch at this link. This 9th century codex, from the Rheims scriptorium, was first published i…

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…

c. 900

#6817

The Nicetas codex.

The earliest surviving illustrated surgical codex was written and illuminated in Constantinople for the Byzantine physician Niketas (Nicetas) about 900 CE. It contains 30 full-page images illustrating the commentary o…

1456

#6818

Aderlasskalender.

The Aderlasskalender for the year 1457, also known as the Laxierkalender, was issued in Mainz, printed in the type of the 36-line Bible, presumably in 1456. It survives in only one incomplete copy in the Bibliothèque …

1465

#6819

Cerrahiyyetu'l-Haniyye (Imperial Surgery)

In 1465, at the age of 80, Ottoman surgeon and physician Şerafeddin Sabuncuoğlu published in manuscript an illustrated atlas of surgery and dentistry. This was also the first medical textbook written in Turkish, proba…

1467

#2190

De sermonum proprietate sive Opus de universo.

Also known as De rerum naturis. This dictionary or encyclopedia is the earliest known printed book to include a section dealing with medicine, and this brief section, Book 18, Chap. V concerning medicine and diseases,…

1471

#91

De proprietatibus rerum.

A condensed encyclopedia of what was then understood by natural science. The work was probably written about the middle of the 13th century. It was one of the most widely read scientific works of the Middle Ages. Caxt…

1471

#1789

Antidotarium. Add: Quid pro quo; Synonyma.

This work, which first circulated in manuscript in 1140, was the first formulary to be printed. It consists of 139 prescriptions and includes the original formula for the “anesthetic sponge” (spongia somnifera), the e…

1471

#10960

Opera medicinalia. Ed: Peregrinus Cavalcobovis, with a preface by Nicolaus Gupalatinus. Consisting of: Canones universales. De simplicibus. Grabadin. Practica.

This undated edition, which the ISTC im00508000 catalogues as "not before 18 May 1471", may be the earliest printed edition of the writings of the medieval Persian or Assyrian Nestorian Christian physician Yuhanna ibn…

1471

#11287

Liber servitoris de praeparatione medicinarum simplicium. Translated by Abraham Tortuosiensis. Edited by Simon a Cordo.

Book 28 on drugs from the Al-Tasrif, a 30-volume Arabic encyclopaedia on medicine and surgery, written ca. 1000 CE by Abulcasis. ISTC No. ia00014000. Digital facsimile from the Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttg…

1472

#2192

Opera medica, sive Practica cum textu noni ad Almansorem.

A commentary on Rhazes with notes and additions. For bibliographical and other details regarding this, the first large medical book to be printed, see the essay by Arnold C. Klebs in: Essays on the history of medicine…

1472

#2070

Conciliator differentiarum philosophorum et medicorum. Add: De venenis.

Includes the first printed book on toxicology; one of the more elegantly printed of medical incunabula, printed in folio format. For an English translation, see Ann. med. Hist., 1924, 6, 26-53. ISTC No. ip00431000. Di…

1472

#6787

Etymologiae.

The principal work of Isidore of Seville, one of the greatest educationists of the Middle Ages. The Etymologiae, an encyclopedic work, presented the sum of contemporary knowledge on all branches of science. Book IV af…

1473

#6316

Regiment der jungen Kinder.

This work has very little originality, being mainly derived from the Arabic physicians of 500 years before, but is noteworthy as being the first book on pediatrics printed in German. It includes what is probably the f…

1473

#6788

Synonyma medicinae, seu clavis sanationis.

The first printed medical dictionary. It was originally published at Ferrara, 1471-2?, of which the only recorded copy is a fragment of 21 leaves in the Bodleian Library. ISTC No. is00526000. “The great work of Simon …

1473

#43

Canon medicinae [Latin] (Lib I-V) (Tr: Gerardus Cremonensis) (5 vols.)

Avicenna is said to have written more than 100 books, most of which have perished. He wrote on the etiology of epilepsy and described diabetes, noticing the sweetish taste of the urine. His Canon is one of the most fa…

c. 1474

#5113

De epidemia et peste.

One of the earliest works written on public health, and one of the earliest printed medical books. It was first printed in Arnaldus de Villanova’s De arte cognoscendi venena (Padua, 1473; Mantua, 1473). Above is the f…

1474

#5552

La ciroxia vulgarmente fata.

Saliceto was Professor of Surgery at Bologna about 1268; his treatise on surgery, written about 1275, was the leading work on the subject in the 13th century. William broke with tradition by claiming that pus formatio…

1474

#5816

De oculis eorumque egritudinibus et curis.

The earliest printed book on ophthalmology. Grassi was the most celebrated ophthalmic surgeon of the Middle Ages. English translation by Casey A. Wood, 1929. ISTC No. ig00352000.

1474

#7151

Liber pandectarum medicinae.

An encyclopedia of medicines, mostly derived from plants, completed about the year 1317. The medicines are arranged in alphabetical order. Two printed editions were issued in 1474. The first, issued in Naples, appeare…

1475

#6789

Aggregator, sive de medicinis simplicibus.

First printed edition of an encyclopedic dictionary of medicine, containing a large number of medical recipes based upon Greek and Arabic sources. Dondi completed the work in 1355. Manuscripts of his text are preserve…

1475

#276.1

Buch der Natur.

The first printed book to contain illustrations of animals, and the first notable scientific book in German. It discusses animals, birds, fish, anatomy, physiology, plagues, the medicinal value of plants and stones, e…

1475

#9146

De conservatione sanitatis. With additions by Johannes Philippus de Lignamine.

This medieval guide to health and hygiene is sometimes misattributed to Hugo Benzi. It was one of the earliest medical or health texts to appear in print, and is unusual in that the printer, who was not a physician, i…

1476

#39

Liber nonus ad Almansorem (cum expositione Silani de Negris).

The Almansor, so named after the prince to whom it was addressed, was a popular textbook and one of the first general medical texts to be printed. Rhazes ranks with Hippocrates and Galen as one of the founders of clin…

1476

#4204

Summa conservationis et curationis. Chirurgia.

Contains (Cap. cxl) his classic account of renal edema: De duritie in renibus, an English translation of which is in Major, Classic descriptions of disease, 3rd ed., 1945, p. 527. ISTC no. is00032000.

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…

1477

#1791

De viribus herbarum carmen.

De viribus herbarum carmen has been attributed to Macer Floridus, a pseudonym of Odo of Meung, who lived in the Loire area of France towards the end of the eleventh century. Macer's unillustrated text described the me…

c. 1477

#1794

Artzneibuch.

The first German pharmacopeia, and a very early work written and published in the vernacular. The book was an important German text of popular medicine in its day. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothe…

c. 1477 –c. 1483

#1959.3

Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum (With commentary by [Pseudo-Arnoldus de Villa Nova]). Add: Arnoldus de Villa Nova: Regimen sanitatis ad regem Aragonum.

Probably originating about 1160, the Regimen sanitatis from the medical school at Salerno (where medicine was first treated as a separate science) had greater popular influence than virtually any other medieval medica…

1477

#10725

Liber phsionomiae [and other works].

"Composed between 1209 and 1226, the first of the two primary texts discusses human generation — anatomy, physiology, astrology, sexual behavior, conception and the health of the fetus. The second part, the Physiognom…

1478

#361

Anatomia.

First dated printed edition of the first medieval book devoted solely to anatomy, written by Mondino for his students in 1316. An earlier, but undated edition, of which only 3 copies are recorded, appeared in Padua ab…

1478

#3666.83

Chirurgia [French]. Translated by Nicolaus Panis.

Guy de Chauliac studied medicine and surgery in Montpellier and Paris, and served as the personal physician to Popes Clement VI, Innocent VI and Urban V. His Chirurgia magna, written in the early 1360s, remained a sta…

1478 –1482

#5115

Tractatus de pestilentia.

The most widely disseminated of all plague tracts from the time of the Black Death, of which 33 printed editions appeared in the 15th century. A French rhymed version appeared in 1476, but this version is very differe…

1478

#1959.2

Von Bewahrung und Bereitung der Weine.

The first printed book on wine, its production and preservation, translated from the Latin by Wilhelm von Hirnkofen. It discusses the value of wine in diet and as a medication. Wine has been called the oldest document…

1478

#276

De animalibus. Edited by Fernandus Cordubensis (Fernando de Córdoba).

Albertus was a Dominican monk and the most eminent naturalist of the 13th century; his work on animals contained a good deal of personal observation. He was the first to comment on virtually all of the writings of Ari…

1480

#8369

Practica, seu Lilium medicinae.

Includes descriptions of plague, tuberculosis, scabies, epilepsy, anthrax, and leprosy. ISTC No. ib00447000.

1480

#12984

Chirurgia. Edited by Matthaeus Moretus.

Argelata was a pupil of Guy de Chauliac, and professor at Bologna. He is supposed to have done the autopsy on Pope Alexander V, who died suddenly on May 3, 1410. ISTC No. ia00951000. Digital facsimile from U.S. Nation…

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

#13888

De regimine sanitatis ad Soldanum Babyloniae.

Maimonides wrote De regimine sanitatis in the 1190s in Arabic as a private manual of health for the Sultan Al-Afdal, son of Saladin. It was translated from Arabic into Hebrew in 1244 by Moses ibn Tibbon, and the Hebre…

1482

#48

Colliget.

The Kitab-al-Kullyat or Colliget (Book of Universals) was an “attempt to found a system of medicine upon the neo-Platonic modification of Aristotle’s philosophy” (Garrison, p. 132). Averroës was the greatest Arab comm…

1482

#8979

Physiologus de naturis duodecim animalium.

The earliest printed edition (circa 1482) of the Physiologus, a Christological natural historical work that originated in Late Antiquity, and remained popular through the Middle Ages. This edition, which was very wide…

1482

#9142

Consilia ad diversas aegritudines. Ed: Laurentius de Gozadinis.

ISTC No. ih00538000.

1483

#6812

Regimen contra pestilentiam [English] Treatise on the Pestilence.

The earliest medical work printed in English. It was published without printer's name or date, but has been attributed to the press of William Machlinia, in London, and estimated to have been published in 1483."Althou…

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

#8341

De urinis by Gilles de Corbeil, with commentary by Gentilis de Fulgineo. Edited by Venantius Mutius.

Gilles de Corbeil's medical poem De urinis was based on writings by Theophilus Protospatharius by way of the Articella. Poems such as this were intended as mnemonic aids for students, and they tended to be widely used…

1484

#12651

Practica quae alias Philonium dicitur.

A general treatise on medical practice. ISTC No. iv00005800

1485

#14113

De balneis et thermis naturalibus omnibus Italiae.

The second printed book on balneology. Savonarola took a skeptical approach to the subject, relying on his own observations and rejecting the notion that baths owed their virtues to occult or supernatural properties. …

1486

#40

Rhazes: Liber Elhavi sive Ars medicinae. Translated by Feragius Salernitanus. Edited by Joannes Bugatus.

The Al-Hawi, or Continens, a great encyclopedia of medicine. The above first Latin translation by Feragius Salernitanus is the largest and heaviest of the medical incunabula. The original manuscript was in Arabic. IST…