Facets

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…

1476

#274

De animalibus. Translated by Theodorus Gaza. Edited by Ludovicus Podocarthus.

Includes Aristotle's De historia animalium, De partibus animalium, and De generatione animalium. Aristotle was the first scientist to gather empirical evidence about the biological world through observation. By his ca…

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…

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 …

1491

#363

Fasciculus medicinae. Add: Petrus de Tussignano: Consilium pro peste evitanda.

A collection of short medical treatises which circulated widely in manuscript, some as early as the 13th century, and was perhaps attributed by the printers to its former owner, Johannes von Kirchheim, a professor of …

1493 –1494

#363.1

Fascicolo di medicina. Tr: Sebastianus Manilius. Add: Petrus de Tussignano: Consilium pro peste evitanda. Mundinus: Anatomia (Ed: Petrus Andreas Morsianus).

This Italian translation contains an entirely new and more extensive series of woodcuts and additional text. The dramatically improved and more realistic illustrations, which were reproduced in the numerous later edit…

1499

#363.2

Philosophie naturalis compendium.

The last section of this commentary on Aristotle is an illustrated summary of anatomy, the text of which was derived, with some modifications, from medieval manuscripts. The series of eleven woodcuts has been called “…

1501

#363.3

Antropologium de ho[min]is dignitate, natura, et p[ro]prietatibus.

Includes the first illustrations of the viscera in a printed book. The four woodcuts are derived with modifications from Peyligk (No. 363.2). This work also contains the first mention ever of the word anthropology (in…

1502

#363.4

Liber anathomie corporis humani & singulorum membrorum illius.

“The first systematic and sufficiently detailed examination of the human body since Mundinus, far outstripping the latter in scientific accuracy” (Lind, Pre-Vesalian anatomy, 10, also 141-56). See also Nos. 1589.1 and…

1502

#12771

Historia corporis humani sive anatomiae.

"... a descriptive anatomy in the style of Mundinus. It concludes with a final chapter on the praise of dissection. He expresses the need for a clinical examination rather than uncritical trust in the authorities “sin…

1507

#2270

De abditis nonnulus ac mirandis morborum et sanationum causis. Edited by Girolamo Benivieni.

Antonio Benivieni's The hidden causes of diseases was the first book on pathological anatomy, presenting the first reports of autopsies made specifically to determine the cause of death. The work records twenty post-m…

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…

1521

#367

Commentaria cum amplissimis additionibus super anatomia Mundini una cum textu ejusdem in pristinum et verum nitorem redacto.

Giacomo Berengario da Carpi (Jacobus Berengarius Carpensis, Jacopo Barigazzi, Giacomo Berengario da Carpi or simply Carpus) introduced iconography and independent anatomical observation into the teaching of anatomy. H…

1522

#368

Isagoge breves perlucide ac uberime in anatomiam humani corporis a communi medicorum academia usitatam.

One year after publishing his Commentary on Mondino, Giacomo Berengario da Carpi issued an abbreviated version or Isagoge, with most of the same woodcuts. This was the book by which Berengario's contributions to anato…

1525

#368.01

The noble experyence of the vertuous handywarke of surgeri.

This translation of Brunschwig’s surgery (No. 5559) includes the first anatomical text printed in English, a 13-page section with 4 woodcuts. Facsimile, Amsterdam, 1973.

1528

#149

Vier Bücher von menschlicher Proportion.

Written, designed, and illustrated by Dürer, this work is notable for its extraordinary series of anthropometrical woodcuts. The first two books deal with the proper proportions of the human form; the third changes th…

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

#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…

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

#368.1

De indiciis et praecognitionibus, opus apprime utile medicis. Eiusdem in anatomicen introductio luculenta et brevis.

The first anatomical text by an Englishman, but only a very brief account of 15 pages. The only known copy of the original edition is in the British Library. Edwardes made the first recorded dissection in England (153…

1535

#369

Anatomica methodus, seu de sectione humani corporis contemplatio.

Includes the first description of the ileo-caecal valve. Laguna, a Spanish anatomist, travelled much in Europe and became physician to Charles V. English translation in No. 461.3. Digital facsimile of the 1535 edition…

1536

#370

Anatomia capitis humani.

The first work on the anatomy of the head. Elegantly illustrated with 11 woodcuts. English translation in No. 461.3.

1536

#1536

Liber introductorius anatomiae sive dissectionis corporis humani; in quo quam plurima membra, operationes, & utilitates tam ab antiquis, quam a modernis praetermissa manifestantur.

A practical manual for dissection, showing how to carry out an anatomy from the first incision onwards. Massa based his work on his experience gained from numerous dissections that he had undertaken in the hospital of…

1536

#7204

Institutiones anatomicae secundum Galeni sententiam.

A handbook presenting the principles of Galenic anatomy in a form that was easily accessible to medical students. It epitomized the revolution in the teaching of anatomy, and the new emphasis on dissection, that occur…

1537

#371

Anatomiae, hoc est, corporis humani dissectionis pars prior.

Dryander was among the first to make illustrations after his own dissections. His unfinished guide to dissection entitled Anatomiae, expanded from the Anatomia published the previous year, is one of the most important…

1537

#7145

De corporis humani fabrica libri quinque a Junio Paulo Crasso Patavino in latinam orationem conversi. [Cum] Hippocratis praeterea Coi de purgatoriis medicamentis libellus perutilis, ac desideratus ab eodem Jun. Paulo Cras. Latinitate donatus.

A Byzantine anatomical and physiological treatise almost entirely abridged from Galen's "De usu partium corporis humani," from which Theophilus now and then differed, and which he sometimes appears to have misundersto…

1538

#372

Tabulae anatomicae sex.

Vesalius’ first anatomical publication, consisting of six oversized anatomical charts, resembling fugitive sheets. The three skeletal woodcuts are signed by the artist, Jan Stephan van Calcar, who also acted as the pu…

1538

#9091

Guenter von Andernach: Institutionum anatomicarum secundum Galeni sententiam ad candidatos medicinae libri quatuor per Joannem Guinterium Andernacum medicum ab Andrea Vesalio Bruxellensi auctiores & emendatiores redditi.

Shortly after the publication of Tabulae anatomicae sex, Vesalius completed this revision of Institutiones anatomicae, a Galenic anatomical text by his teacher Johann Guinter first published in 1536. Vesalius justifie…

1541

#373

Musculorum humani corporis picturata dissectio.

The first book in which each muscle was illustrated separately, with copper-plates of the bones and muscles of the upper limb from drawings by Girolamo da Carpi, which in realism and exactitude surpassed anything betw…

1541

#373.1

Des aller fürtrefflichsten…erschaffen. Das is des menchen…warhafftige beschreibung oder Anatomi…

This plagiarism of Vesalius’s Tabulae anatomicae sex contains 25 woodcuts by Hans Baldung Grien (1484/1485-1545), and represents the artist’s only contribution to medical illustration. The woodcuts include the best il…

1542

#374

Libro de anatomia In: Remedio de cuerpos humanos y silva de experiencias y otras cosas utilissimas: nuevamente compuesto…

Text in Spanish and Latin. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1543

#376

Suorum de humani corporis fabrica librorum epitome.

Shortly after publishing his encyclopedic De humani corporis fabrica libri septem, Vesalius issued De humani corporis fabrica epitome, also from the press of Johannes Oporinus of Basel. This thin set of 14 unnumbered …

1543

#375

De humani corporis fabrica libri septem.

Published when the author was only 29 years old, the Fabrica revolutionized not only the science of anatomy but how it was taught. Throughout this encylopedic work on the structure and workings of the human body, Vesa…

1545

#376.1

Compendiosa totius anatomie delineatio, aere exarata.

Compendiosa totius anatomie delineatio by Belgian engraver, mathematical and surgical instrument maker, Thomas Geminus (Thomas Lambert or Lambrit) was a slightly abridged version of Vesalius's Epitome illustrated with…

1545

#378

De dissectione partium corporis humani.

De dissectione partium corporis humani libri tres by French physician, writer, and translator, Charles Estienne, of the Estienne printing dynasty, is one of the most interesting woodcut books of the French Renaissance…

1546

#1810.1

Epistola, rationem modumque propinandi radicis Chynae decocti…

In this work on the discovery and therapeutic use of the china root (Smilax china) in the treatment of syphilis, Vesalius described the first attempt to formulate methods of identification of an exotic drug. He also o…

1549

#8931

Dialogus de re medica compendiaria ratione, præter quædam alia, universam Anatomen humani corporis perstringens, summè necessarius omnibus Medicinæ canditatis.

The first Spanish medical book based on the writings of Vesalius, written by Vesalius’s student Pedro Jimeno, whose activities “constituted the cornerstone of the Valencian School of Anatomy and the Spanish Vesalian m…

1551

#378.01

Libro de la anathomia del hombre.

The first Spanish anatomy book in the Spanish language, the second anatomy book ever published in Spain, and the work that introduced Vesalian illustrations to Spain. The text is a version of Henri de Mondeville’s med…

1551

#278

L'histoire naturelle des estranges poissons marins, avec la vraie peincture & description du daulphin, & de plusieurs autres de son espece.

This, Belon’s first biological work, is regarded as the earliest modern scientific work in the field of comparative anatomy. Finely illustrated with woodcuts. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1551

#12945

Curationum medicinalium centuria prima, multiplici variaque rerum cognitione referta. Praexfixa est eiusdem auctoris commentatio, in qua docetur, quomodo se medicus habere debeat in introitu ad aegrotantem, simulque de crisi, & diebus decretoriis, in qui artem medicam exercent, & quotidie pro salute aegrotorum in collegium descendunt longe utilissima.

Lusitano has been credited with early recognition of the circulation of the blood. How much he might have understood the circulation remains in doubt; however, through dissections of the Azygos vein, he was the first …

1554

#23

De vesicae renumque morbis. De purgantibus medicamentis. De partibus corporis humani...

First printed edition in Greek, edited by Jacques Goupyl. Rufus was a Greek physician who lived during the rule of Trajan. He wrote wrote treatises on dietetics, pathology, anatomy, and patient care. His De partibus c…

1554

#2271

Medicina. 3 pts.

The first systematic treatise on pathology, which also introduced the names for the sciences of pathology and physiology. In the second part, entitled “Pathologia”, Fernel provided the first systematic essay on the su…

1554

#463

Ein schön lustig Trostbüchle von den Empfengknussen und Geburten der Menschen…

An improved version of Rösslin’s Swangern frawen. This contains the first true anatomical pictures in an obstetrics book. Rueff described smooth-edged forceps for delivery of a live baby, preceding Chamberlen, and a t…

1554 –1555

#282

Libri de piscibus marinis, in quibus verae piscium effigies expressae sunt. (Universae aquatilium pars altera.) 2 vols.

Rondelet wrote this book with the idea of verifying Aristotle, but in it he described many forms of fishes for the first time. The book is an accurate account of his investigation of Mediterranean fishes and marine an…

1555

#377

De humani corporis fabrica libri septem.

Containing Vesalius’s final published revisions of the text, this edition is also superior for its enlarged format, improved typography and printing, better paper, larger woodcut initials, and changes to the lettering…

1555

#283

L'histoire de la nature des oyseaux, avec leurs descriptions, et naïfs portraicts retirez du naturel escrite en sept livres.

Belon’s book on birds is well illustrated, including plates of the skeletons of man and bird side by side and in the same posture, to compare them bone for bone. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1556

#378.02

Historia de la composicion del cuerpo humano…

Historia de la composicion del cuerpo humano Spanish physician Juan Valverde de Amusco was issued in Rome at the press of Antonio Salamanca. This was the first great original medical book in Spanish and the most origi…

1559

#378.1

De re anatomica libri xv.

Colombo was a pupil of Vesalius, and succeeded him in the chair of anatomy at Padua before proceeding to chairs first at Pisa and later at Rome. His book, published just after his death, rectified a number of anatomic…

1561

#1208

Observationes anatomicae.

Observationes anatomicae, a work of 232 leaves printed in the comparatively small octavo format, with no illustrations, was the only work Fallopio published before his death from tuberculosis at age thirty-nine, and i…