Facets

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 …

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…

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…

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

#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 …

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…

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 –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…

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…

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

#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…

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…

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

#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…

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 …

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…

1487

#1961

De particularibus diaetis.

The first separately printed treatise on diet was written by the Egyptian-Jewish physician and philosopher Isaac Judaeus who lived from about 832 to 932 CE. He was also known as Isaac Israeli ben Solomon and Abu Ya'qu…

1490

#5553

La chirurgie da Lanfranc traduit du latin par Guillaume Yvoire.

Lanfranc, the founder of French surgery, was a pupil of William of Salicet. He enjoyed a great reputation for his lecturing and bedside teaching. His Chirurgia magna was completed in 1296. According to Hirsch and othe…

1490

#47

Liber Teisir, sive rectificatio medicationis et regiminis. Antidotarium. Translated from Arabic into Hebrew by Jacobus Hebraeus; into Latin by Paravicius. Add: Averroes: Colliget.

This is a Latin translation from a Hebrew version dating from 1280. Avenzoar, the greatest Muslim physician of the Western Caliphate, described the itch-mite, Sarcoptes scabiei, serous pericarditis, mediastinal absces…

c. 1490

#13042

Governayle of helthe. Add: John Lydgate, Medicina stomachi.

Though it's exact publication date is uncertain, this is the first medical publication issued in English by William Caxton, the first English printer, who set up the first English press in Westminster Abbey. Only two …

1491

#6314

Versehung des Leibs.

Written in 1429, this didactic poem is the first known text to be devoted to the normal physiology and common illnesses of children. It was written in old Swabian, and its author was a monk. The poem was probably inte…

1492

#2191

Rosa anglica practica medicinae. Ed: Nicolaus Scyllacius.

The first printed medical book of an Englishman. John of Gaddesden was a prebendary of St. Paul’s Cathedral and physician to Edward II. The work, to quote Garrison, “consists mainly of Arabist quackeries and countrysi…

1492

#1960

Thesaurus pauperum. [Italian:] Tesoro de poveri. Tr: Zucchero Bencivenni.

One of the most popular medical books of the Middle Ages; first written about 1260. After its first printing about 1492 it was reprinted many times in the next 100 years. "Petrus Hispanus was the only practicing physi…

1492

#7791

De venenis. Ed: Dominicus de Canali.

Compiled in the years, 1424-1426, from Greek, Arabic and Latin works on medicine and nature. "Although Ardoini quotes previous authors at great length, his work is no mere compilation, since he does not hesitate to di…

1493

#3666.84

Practica. IN: Liber nonus ad Almansorem (cum expositione Joannis Arculani). Ed: Hieronymus Surianus and Elyanorus Sanseverinus.

Arcolani's Practica, published in this edition of Rhazes with Arcolani's commentary, includes the first documentation for the use of gold for filling diseased teeth. There are also several chapters on diseases of the …

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…

c. 1496

#92

De proprietatibus rerum. English translation by John of Trevisa.

This English translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus was made by John of Trevisa in 1398. Bibliographically it is of interest as being one of the earliest books printed in London, one of the finest of the 15th century, …

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…