Facets

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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 …

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…

1500 –1501

#3666.82

Chirurgia cum formis instrumentorum (Tr: Gerardus Cremonensis). IN: Guy de Chauliac: Chirurgia parva. Add: Albulcasis: Chirurgia cum formis instrumentorum. Jesus filius Hali: De oculis (Tr: Dominicus Marrochinus). Canamusali de Baldach: De oculis.

The surgical section of Albucasis’s Altasrif, the first rational, complete and illustrated treatise on surgery and surgical instruments. The author was an Arab Muslim physician and surgeon who lived in Al-Andalus. Dur…

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.…

1519

#3048

Liber theoricae nec non practicae Alsaharavii.

This is the first printing of the medical and therapeutic section of Abul Qasim’s medical encyclopedia or al-Tasrif. It contains what is probably the earliest description of hemophilia (fol. 145). Digital facsimile fr…

1520 –1522

#8344

[Vol. 1:] Primus Avi. Canon. Avicenna, medicorum principis, Canonum liber (translatus a Gerardo Cremonensi), una cum lucidissima Gentilis Fulgi. expositione, qui merito is Speculator appellatus, additis annotationibus omnium auctoritatum and priscorum and recentiorum auctorum (edente Barthomomeo Tantuccio) .... - [Vol. 2:] Secundus Canon Avic., Cum exquisitissima Gentilis Fulg. expositione. Demum Plinii auctoritates, secundum annotata capita in de Simplicibus nuperrime addite. - [Vol.3:] Tertius Can. Avic., Cum amplissima Gentilis Fulgi. expositione. Demum commentaria nuper addita, videlicet Jacobi de Partibus super "Fen" VI and XIIII. Item Jo. Matthei de Gradi super "Fen" XXII, quia Gentilis in eis defecit. - [Vol. 4:]: Secunda pars Gentilis super tertio Avic. Cum supplementis Jacobi de Partibus, Parisiensis, ac Joannis Matthei de Gradi, Mediolanensis, ubi Gentilis vel breviter vel tacite pertransivit. - [Vol.5:] Quartus Canon Avicenna, cum preclara Gentilis Fulginatis exhibits. Thadei item Florentini expositio super secunda "Fen" ejusdem. Gentilis Florentini iterum super duos primos tractatus quinte "Fen". Quintus etiam Canon, cum ejusdem Gentilis Fulginatis lucidissima exhibits. Canticorum liber, cum commento Averroys, translatus ex arabico a magistro Armegando Blasii, Libellus de Viribus cordis translatus ab Arnaldo de Villanova). Omnia accuratissime revisa atque castigata ....

The commentary by Gentile da Foligno upon Avicenna's Canon was among the most influential medical texts of the Later Middle Ages. See Roger K. French, Canonical medicine: Gentile da Foligno and scholasticism (Leiden: …

1527

#7202

Avicenne liber canonis medicinae. Cum castigationibus Andree Bellunensis.

Revised and improved text of the Canon and other works of Avicenna by Andrea Alpago of Belluno, who had acquired a deep understanding of both the language and the subject during his thirty years of service as physicia…

1531

#7627

Tacuini sanitatis Elluchasem Elimithar Medici de Baldath, de sex rebus non naturalibus, earum naturis, operationibus, & rectificationibus, publico omnium usui, conseruandae sanitatis, recens exarati. Albengnefit De uirtutibus medicinarum, & ciborum. Iac. Alkindus De rerum gradibus.

A Christian physician of Baghdad, Ibn Butlān traveled widely, eventually settling in Antioch. His treatise on hygiene and dietetics, Taqwām al-sihhah (The Almanac of Health) presented a guide to medical regimen in tab…

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…

1553

#8982

Les observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables, trouuées en Grece, Asie, Iudée, Egypte, Arabie, & autres pays estranges, redigées en trois livres.

Belon was first trained as an apothecary, and worked in that capacity for the bishop of Clermont, Guillaume Duprat. Around 1542 he studied medicine In Paris, and obtained a licentiate in medicine, though he never took…

1572

#10937

Opticae thesaurus: Alhazeni Arabis libri septem, nunc primum editi; Eiusdem liber De Crepusculis et nubium ascensionibus. Edited by Friedrich Risner.

The Arab mathematician, astronomer, and physicist of the Islamic Golden Age Alhazen made significant contributions to the principles of optics and the theory of visual perception in his Opticae thesaurus. Risner's edi…

1582

#7327

Aigentlich Beschreibung der Raiss, so er vor diser Zeit gegen Auffgang inn die Morgenländer, fürnemlich Syriam, Iudaeam, Arabiam, Mesopotamiam, Babyloniam, Assyriam, Armeniam etc....

Rauwolf provided the first modern descriptions of the flora of the area east of the Levantine coast. He was also the first to describe the riparian flora of the Euphrates, and the first European to publish an account …

1591

#6468

De medicina Aegyptiorum, libri quatuor.

The first significant work on the history of Egyptian medicine, and one of the first European studies of non-European medicine. Alpini became professor of botany at Padua after having spent three years in Egypt. Frenc…

1593

#44

Kitāb al-Qānūn fial-ţibb. [Libri V Canonis medicinae.]

Title transliterated. Text and title page (except imprint) are in Arabic. This is the first printing of the text in Arabic of Book V of al-Qānūn. See also S. M. Afnan, Avicenna, his life and works. London, 1958.

1640

#12403

A paradox. Prooving, that the inhabitants of the isle called Madagascar, or St. Laurence, ... are the happiest people in the world. Whereunto is prefixed, a briefe and true description of that island: the nature of the climate, and condition of the inhabitants, and their speciall affection to the English above other nations. With most probable arguments of a hopefull and fit plantation of a colony there, in respect of the fruitfulnesse of the soyle, the benignity of the ayre, and the relieving of our English ships, both to and from the East-Indies.

“Hamond, author and explorer, published a translation of Ambroise Paré’s ‘Methode de traicter les Playes faictes par Harquebuses et aultres batons a feu,’ 1617, 4to. He was in the service of the East India Company, an…

1647

#12808

De proprietatibus ac virtutibus medicis animalium, plantarum, ac gemmarum tractatus triplex. Auctore Habdarrahmano Asiutensi Aegyptio. Nunc primum ex Arabico idiomate Latinate donatus ab Abraham Ecchellensi Maronita, Syracae, & Arabicae linguae Christianissimi Regis intreprete, & earundem in Academia Parisensi professore. Ex MS. Codice biblothecae eminentissimi Cardinal Mazarini.

First Latin translation of a three-part pharmaceutical treatise on the properties and effects of medicines derived from animals, plants, and minerals, attributed to the medieval Egyptian polymath Abd Al-Rahman Al-Suyu…

1674

#5336.1

Exercitatio de vena Medinensi, ad mentem Ebn Sinae [Ibn Sina] sive de dracunaculis veterum. Specimen exhibens novae versionis ex Arabico, cum commentario uberiori. Cui accedit altera, de vermiculis capillaribus infantium.

An exhaustive survey of dracontiasis, or guinea worm disease, based on the Arabic writings of Avicenna. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1685

#11128

Traité des maladies particulières aux pays orientaux, et dans la route, et de leurs Remèdes. Par M.C.D.D.E.M.

At the age of 17, Dellon, who is sometimes referred to as Gabriel Dellon, embarked as second surgeon aboard the ship La Force. He arrived at Darman, in the Portuguese Indies, in 1673, where he was doctor to Luis de Me…

1719

#13538

Caput Bonae Spei hodiernum, das ist: vollständige Beschreibung des africanischen Vorgebürges der Guten Hofnung. Worinnen in dreyen Theilen abgehandelt wird, wie es heut zu Tage, nach seiner Situation und Eigenschaft aussiehet; ingleichen was ein Natgur-Forscher in den dreyen Reichen der Natur....

Includes the first study of the natural history of the Cape region of South Africa. Translated into English by "Mr. Medley" as The present state of the Cape of Good-Hope. 2 vols., London, 1738-31. Digital facsimile of…

1721

#10651

Relation des différentes espèces de peste qui reconnaissent les orientaux, des précautions & des remèdes qu'ils prennent pour empêcher la communication & le progrès; et ce que nous devons faire à leur exemple pour nous en préserver, & nous en guérir.

Gaudereau worked as a missionary in Turkey, Armenia, Persia, and India, facing plague outbreaks several times. In Turkey he almost succumbed to the plague, himself, but was cured using local remedies. These remedies a…

1735

#8483

A voyage to Guinea, Brasil and the West Indies; in His Majesty's ships, the Swallow and Weymouth: Describing the several islands and Settlements, viz, Madeira, the Canaries, Cape de Verd, Sierraleon, Sesthos, Cape Apollonia, Cabo Corso, and others on the Guinea coast; Barbadoes, Jamaica, &c. in the West-Indies; the colour, diet, languages, habits, manners, customs, and religions of the respective natives, and inhabitants. With remarks on the gold, ivory, and slave-trade; and on the winds, tides and currents of the several coasts.

Atkins, surgeon on the voyage, included information about the slave trade and the natural history of the Gold Coast. "Atkins describes the manatee accurately, and tells much about fetish worship. He shows that there w…

1735

#9416

Historiae Aegypti naturalis qua continentur rerum Aegyptiarum libri quatuor. Opus posthumum nunc primum ex auctoris autographo, diligentissime recognito, editum; atque ex eodem tabellis aeneis XXV illustratum et uberimmo indice auctem. (2 vols.) Vol. 2: Pars secunda, sive, de Plantis Aegypti liber auctus & emendatus. Accedunt tabella aenae LXXVII plantis summo artificio incisis; ut & dissertatio eiusdem de laserpitio, & lotoaegyptia. Cum observationibus & notis Joannis Veslingii, equitis, In Patavino Gymnasio Anatomiae & Pharmaciae professoris primarii. Accedunt Eiusdem Joannis Veslingii paraeneses ad rem herbariam & vindiciae opobalsami cum indicibus necessariis.

Posthumously published works of Alpini on the natural history and botany of Egypt, and Vesling on the botany of Egypt. The second volume, on botany by Alpini was edited by Johannes Vesling, with the addition of his ow…

1738

#8853

Vol. 1: Travels through the low countries, Germany, Italy and France, with curious observations, natural, topographical, moral, physiological, & c. Also, A catalogue of plants, found spontaneously growing in those parts, and their virtues. Vol. 2: A collection of curious travels and voyages. Containing Dr. Leonhart Rauwolff's journey into the eastern countries, viz. Syria, Palestine, or the Holy Land, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Chaldea, & c. Translated from the original high Dutch, by Nicholas Staphorst. And also, travels into Greece, Asia, Minor, Egypt, Arabia Felix, Petraea, Ethiopia, the Red Sea, & c. Collected from the observations of Mons. Belon, Prosper Alpinus, Dr. Huntingdon, Mr. Vernon, Sir George Wheeler, Dr. Smith, Mr. Greaves, and others. To which are added three catalogues of such trees, shrubs and herbs as grow in the Levant

This is the second and best edition in 2 volumes of works that were first issued separately in 1673 and 1693 respectively. For Rauwolf see No. 7327. Digital facsimile of the 1738 edition from the Medical Heritage Libr…

1756

#5290

Natural history of Aleppo and parts adjacent.

Includes (Chap, iv) a good account of “Aleppo boil”, which Russell found to be endemic in Aleppo. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1757

#9510

Fredric Hasselquists ... Iter Palæstinum, eller Resa til Heliga Landet, förrättad ifrån år 1749 til 1752, med beskrifningar, rön, anmärkningar, öfver de märkvärdigaste naturalier, på Hennes Kongl. Maj:ts befallning.

A disciple of Linnaeus, who complained about the lack of information regarding the natural history of Palestine, Hasselquist undertook a journey to that region provide further information. Having raised funds sufficie…

1757

#11525

Histoire naturelle du Sénégal. Coquillages. Avec la relation abrégée d'un voyage fait en ce pays, pendant les années 1749, 50, 51, 52 & 53.

Adanson's voyage and explorations in Senegal, including the Island of Goree and the River Senegal. The second part is a general survey of the living mollusks he found in Senegal. His classification of mollusks was ori…

1778

#5550

De chirurgia. Arabice et Latine cura Johannis Channing. 3 vols.

This parallel Arabic-Latin edition prepared by the apothecary John Channing is the first printed edition in Arabic, and the first modern edition of the text. Digital facsimile of the 1778 edition from Bayerische Staat…

1779

#9501

A physical journal kept on board H. M. Ship Rainbow during three voyages to the coast of Africa and the West Indies, in the years 1772, 1773, and 1774: To which is prefixed, a particular account of the remitting fever which happened on board of His Majesty's Sloop Weasel, on that coast, in 1769.

1781

#10230

Some account of the termites, which are found in Africa and other hot climates. In a letter from Mr. Henry Smeathman...to Sir Joseph Banks, Bart.

Pioneering study of tropical termites, their mounds, and their behavior, well illustrated with engravings. Digital facsimile from the Royal Society at this link.

1788

#10813

An account of the slave trade on the coast of Africa.

Falconbridge was a surgeon in the slave trade before becoming an abolitionist. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1789

#13763

A narrative of four journeys into the country of the Hottentots, and Caffraria. In the years one thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven, eight, and nine.

Trained in horticulture at Syon House, London, Paterson was sent in 1777 to the Cape of Good Hope to collect plants for the estate of the Countess of Strathmore, undertaking four journeys into the South African interi…

1791

#9522

A treatise of the plague: Containing an historical journal, and medical account, of the plague, at Aleppo, in the years 1760, 1761, and 1762.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1793

#13041

The history of Dahomy, an inland kingdom of Africa; compiled from authentic memoirs; with an introduction and notes.

Dalzel studied medicine at Edinburgh, and served in the Royal Navy as a surgeon during the Seven Years’ War (1756–63). Discharged in 1763, he accepted a position as a surgeon in the Company of Merchants Trading to Afr…

1795

#5336.3

An essay on the malignant pestilential fever introduced into the West Indian Islands from Boullam, on the coast of Guinea, as it appeared in 1793 and 1794.

Chisholm, "Surgeon to his Majesty's Ordnance in Grenada," was apparently the first to observe the mode of transmission of the Guinea worm, Dracunculus medinensis. Chishom was also one of the first to recognize that th…

1798 –1801

#10577

Opuscules du C[itoy]en Desgenettes, Médecin en chef de l'Armée d'Orient.

A collection of nine separately printed pamphlets issued by Napoleon's press in Cairo during his Egyptian campaign. See J.-F. Hutin, "La littérature médicale de la campagne d'Égypte", Histoire des sciences medicales, …

1799

#7931

Travels in the interior districts of Africa: Performed under the direction and patronage of the African Association, in the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797. By Mungo Park, surgeon. With an appendix, containing geographical illustrations of Africa by Major Rennell.

Park, a Scottish physician, was the first Westerner to travel to the central portion of the Niger River. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1799

#9070

Ensaios sobre algumas enfermidades d'Angola....

Azeredo noted that the tropical fevers found in Brazil and Angola were very similar. He claimed to have achieved excellent results with his “new method” of treatment, which included the use of quinine, nux vomica, ars…

1800

#1768

Historiae Aegypti compendium, Arabice et Latine. Partim ipse vertit, partim a Pocockio versum edendum curavit, notisque illustravit J. White.

Arabic-Latin bilingual text, edited by White, incorporating a translation begun by Edward Pococke the Younger (1648-1727). Abd al-Latif gave a good description of the fauna and flora of Egypt, its inhabitants and some…

1800 –1801

#5837

Mémoire sur l’ophtalmie régnante en Egypte.

The great military surgeon Larrey served during the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt, where he was the first to observe the contagiousness of trachoma shortly after the successful invasion in 1798. The disease spread to E…

1801

#12053

Observations sur la maladies appelée peste, le flux dissentérique, l'ophtalmie d'Égypte, et les moyens de s'en préserver. Avec des notions sur la fièvre jaune de Cadix, et les projet et plan d'un hôpital, pour le traitement maladies épidémiques et contagieuses.

At the time of publication Assalini, a military surgeon with Napoleon, characterized himself on the title page as "Docteur en Médecine et Chirugien de 1re classe de la Garde des Consuls..." Digital facsimile from well…

1802

#8188

Histoire médicale de l'Armée d'Orient.

Napoleon appointed Desgenettes physician-in-chief for his expedition into Egypt. Desgenette's Histoire contained 19 separate chapters written by expedition personel. Digital facsimile of the 1802 from the Internet Arc…

1802

#8204

Mémoire sur le commerce des nègres au Kaire et sur les maladies auxquelles ils sont sujets en y arrivant.

Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link. Also published in Mémoires sur l'Egypte: ... Publiés dans les années VII, VIII et IX, Volume 4, (An X) pp. 125-156.

1803

#5266

An account of the native Africans in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone; to which is added, an account of the present state of medicine among them. 2 vols.

In his travels in Africa, Winterbottom, physician to the Colony of Sierra Leone (now Republic of Sierra Leone) on the west coast of Africa, saw sleeping sickness, which he described in vol. 2, pp. 29-31, as a species …

1803

#7367

Travels in Turkey, Asia-Minor, Syria, and across the desert into Egypt during the years 1799, 1800, and 1801, in company with the Turkish Army, and the British Military Mission.To which are annexed, observations on the plague, and on the diseases prevalent in Turkey, and a meteorological journal.

Wittman described the plague and other epidemics that afflicted both the Ottoman and British armies. In the Appendix he provided medical suggestions for treatment, together with a history of the plague. Digital facsim…

1803

#12942

Rélation historique et chirurgicale de I’expedition de l'Armée d’Orient, en Egypte et en Syrie.

Larrey's history of his experiences with Napoleon and Napoleon's armies during the Egypt campaign. Includes a reprint of Larrey's treatise on trachoma, which was first published at Napoleon's press in Cairo. Digital f…