Facets

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…

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

#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…

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

#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.

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

#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…

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…

1497

#5559

Das ist das buch der Cirurgia

The first important printed surgical treatise in German. It combines a compilation of the ancient and medieval authorities with Brunschwig’s own extensive experience. It contains the first detailed account of gunshot …

1498

#12925

Chirurgia. Add: Brunus Longoburgensis: Chirurgia magna et minor; Bonaventura de Castello: Recepta aquae balnei de Porrecta; Theodoricus Cerviensis: Chirurgia; Rolandus: Libellus de chirurgia; Lanfrancus Mediolanensis: Chirurgia; Rogerius: Practica; Leonardus Bertapalia: Recollectae super quarto libro Avicennae.

This late 15th century edition of the surgery of Guy de Chauliac also contained the first printed editions of various lesser-known medieval surgeries such as those by Bruno da Longoburgo and Leonardo Bertapaglia. It a…

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…

1510

#11034

La cyrogia di Miastro Bruno: Expertissimo in quella. Tradutta in vulgare.

Bruno da Longoburgo studied surgery in Bologna or possibly Padua, and practiced in the latter city, where he helped found the University of Padua. His Chirurgia magna, completed in 1252, antedates those of Lanfranch, …

1514

#5559.1

Practica in arte chirurgica copiosa… continens novem libros.

The first complete system of surgery after that of Guy de Chauliac. In 1503 Vigo became the personal surgeon to Pope Julius II. His Practica in arte chirurgia copiosa was completed in 1514 and first published in Latin…

1517

#5560

Feldtbuch der wundartzney.

Gersdorff performed nearly 200 amputations. He opposed Paré’s abandonment of boiling oil for the cauterization of wounds. The book contains some instructive pictures of early surgical procedures and includes the first…

1518

#4850.2

Tractatus de fractura calve sive cranei.

The first separate treatise on head wounds and their surgical treatment. Berengario described several types of skull fractures and grouped the resulting lesions according to their symptoms, citing the relation between…

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

#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…

1530

#12774

Lentretenement de vie, summairement compose par maistre Jehan Goeurot docteur en medicine... Contenant les remedes de medicine & cyrurgie, contre toutes maladies survenantes quotidiannement es corps humains. Lesquelles il a approuvees, & en ce petit livre inserees a la requeste de madame, pour la sante utilite & proffit de tout le monde...Item une régime singulier contre peste approuve sur plusieurs. Item une table pour plus facilement trouver le contenu dudict livre.

Concerns medical and surgical treatment of the diseases of the head, ears, eyes, chest, heart, liver, and intestines, and plague. Also includes treatments for tooth aches, bad breath, and how to whiten teeth. The Lyon…

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…

1534

#33

Bιβλίων ὶαтριкω̂ν тομος ά. Librorum medicinalium tomus primus, primi scilicet libri octo nunc primum in lucem editi.

First printed edition in the original Greek of the first half of the Tetrabiblion, issued in Venice by the heirs of Aldus Manutius. In the Tetrabiblion Aetius collected together works of other men which might have bee…

1536

#5561

Grosse Wund Artzney von allen Wunden, Stich, Schüssz, Bränd, Bissz, Beynbrüch, und alles was die Wundartzney begreifft.

Paracelsus was a doctor, chemist, lecturer, and reformer. His novel doctrines gained him many followers. He expressed novel ideas for the treatment of wounds, disbelieving in the use of boiling oil for the purificatio…

1540

#6959

Eyn new Wund Artznei M. Johans von Parisijs. Wie mann alle wunden, sie seien gestochen, gehawen, geschossen mit pfeil oder lot gequetzt vnd gestossen [et]c. mit salben, pflastern vnnd wundttranck, durch den gantzen leip dess menschens, vom Kopff an biss auff die füss, heylen solein kurtzer, ordenlicher Bericht M. Johan von Parisiis jtzunt am newsten auss gangen.

Johannes von Beris (or Paris) lived in the mid-15th century near Metz, and is thus the earliest identifiable German surgeon, and the first to write about gunshot wounds and wound surgery. His work, which was first pub…

1544

#4406.1

Chirurgia e graeco in latinum conversa.

This elegantly printed and illustrated small folio included 210 text woodcuts, most probably after drawings by the school of Francesco Salviati (Francesco de'Rossi). It was issued from the press operated by Pierre Gau…

1552

#2139.1

De vulnerum sclopetorum et bombardarum curatione tractatus.

In this very early work on gunshot wounds Maggi, Professor of Surgery at Bologna, showed that not all gunshot wounds suppurated and he discarded cauterization, treating such wounds with white of egg and salt water.

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…

1555

#5562

De chirurgia scriptores optimi quique veteres et recentiores, plerique in Germania antehac non editi.

A collection made by Gesner of various surgical works by ancient and recent authors including M. A. Blondus, A. Bolognini, G. Dondi, A. Ferri, Galen, C. Gesner, J.Langius, B. Maggi, Marianus Sanctus, Oribasius, and J.…

1556

#3573

Petit traité contenant une des parties principalles de chirurgie, laquelle les chirurgiens hernieres exercent.

Clifford Allbutt considered Franco the best lithotomist of the 16th century. His skill in extracting the stone by the perineal route was of a high order; in 1556 he introduced the operation of suprapubic cystotomy in …

1561

#1814

In hoc volumine continentur Valerii Cordi ... Annotationes in Pedacii Dioscoridis Anazarbei De medica materia libros V : longè aliae quàm ante hac sunt evulgatae. Ejusdem Val. Cordi Historiae stirpium Lib. IIII. posthumi, nunc primùm in lucem editi, adjectis etiam stirpium iconibus, & brevissimus annotatiunculis. Sylva, qua rerum fossilium in Germania plurimarum, metallorum, lapidum & stirpium aliquot rariorum notitiam brevissimè persequitur, nunquam hactenus visa. De artificiosis extractionibus liber. Compositiones medicinales aliquot, non vulgares. His accedunt Stocc-Hornii et Nessi in Bernatium Helvetiorum ditione montium, & nascentium in eis stirpium, descriptio Benedicti Aretii ... Item Conradi Gesneri De hortus Germaniae, liber recens, unà cum descriptione tulipae turcarum, chamaecerasi montani, chamaemespili, chamaenerii, & conozoidis ... Omnia summa studio atque industria ... Conr. Gesneri ... collecta, & praefationibus illustrata.

This work not only updated the species listed by Dioscorides, but also listed about 500 new species of plants. Published posthumously, the work was carefully edited by Conrad Gesner. Cordus was the inventor of phytogr…

1561

#3574

Traité des hernies... et autres excellentes parties de chirurgie assavior de la pierre, des cataractes des yeux, & autres maladies...

Greatly expanded second edition, including Franco's operations for cataract and urinary calculi. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

1561

#4850.3

La méthode curative des playes, & fractures de la teste humaine.

Written after the death of Paré’s patient, Henri II, who was struck in the eye by the shaft of a lance at a tournament in celebration of the marriage of Philip, King of Spain, with Elizabeth of France. Paré discusses …

1562

#11404

Gli ornamenti delle donne: Tratti dalle scritture d'una reina greca per m. Giovanni Marinello et diuisi in quattro libri.

A comprehensive manual by a physician on female hygiene, beauty and adornment, containing hundreds of recommendations, advice on cosmetics, and more than two dozen recipes for dyes to bleach hair blond. Marinello reco…

1563

#2140

An excellent treatise of wounds made with gonneshot.

Gale, a contemporary of Paré, was surgeon in Henry VIII’s army at Montreuil. His book supported the views of Paré regarding the treatment of gunshot wounds, denying the poisonous effect of bullets; Gale, however, appl…

1563

#5563

Practica der Wundartzney.

Würtz was a friend of Gessner and an admirer of Paracelsus; his book went through many editions and was translated into English, French, and Dutch. It describes the treatment of gunshot wounds, fractures, and dislocat…

1564

#3668.1

Dix livres de la chirurgie avec le magasin des instruments necessaires à icelle.

Paré’s first general treatise on surgery, and the most comprehensive of his treatises before his collected works (1575). Dix livres included Paré's first description of the use of the ligature in amputations, one of h…

1567

#9053

Secretos de chirurgia, en especial de la enfermedades de morbo-galico y lamparones, y asimismo la manera como se curan los indos las llgas y heridas, y otras pasiones en las Indias, muy útil y provechoso par España, y otros muchos secretos de chirugia hasta ahora no escritos.

Arias de Benevides travelled to the New World where he observed native remedies and reported them in this book. In the book he also described his performance in Mexico City (1561) of the first neurosurgical interventi…

1568

#3164

Pro magni, et illustr. Terraenovae Ducis fistula, ex levi axilla in thoracis concavum pervia, etc. In P. Ingrassia, Quaestio de purgatione per medicamentum

Vesalius’s consilium to Ingrassia, dated Madrid, 1562, in which he clearly described the operation for empyema (pp. 92-98). Although treatment of empyema by surgery was referred to in classical times, it became unfash…

1569

#13117

Chirurgie françoise, avec plusieurs figures des instrumens nécessaires pour l'opération manuelle.

Daléchamp, a pupil of Guillaume Rondelet, received his doctorate in medicine from the University of Montpellier in 1547; he settled in Lyons in 1552, where he remained for the rest of his life. His Chirurgie françoise…

1573

#534.51

Deux livres de chirurgie. I. De la generation de l’homme… II. Des monstres tant terrestres que marins avec leurs portraits.

Many reports of real malformations are intermixed with mythical accounts. English translations, 1634, and later. Recent English translation, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1982. Digital facsimile of the 1573 ed…

1573

#4850.4

Chirurgiae Ioannis Andrea a Cruce, Veneti medici libri septem, Quamplurimis instrumentorum imaginibus arti chirurgicae opportunis suis locis exornati, theoricam, practicam ac verissimam experientiam continentes....

Croce improved the instruments for trephination, and published classic woodcuts depicting the operation, including the first illustration of a neurological surgery operation actually taking place. The work is also imp…

1575

#5565

Les oeuvres de M. Ambroise Paré.

Paré was the greatest of the army surgeons before Larrey. Born in poor circumstances, he became the most famous surgeon in France. He is particularly remembered for his abandonment of boiling oil and the cautery (No. …

1575

#284

Lectiones Gabrielis Falloppi de partibus similaribus humani corporis, ex diversis exemplari eus a Volchero Coiter summa cum diligentia collecta. His accessere diversorum animalium sceletorum explicationes iconibus artificiosis, et genuinis illustratae.

Coiter, a pupil of Fallopius and Eustachius, became town physician of Nuremberg. His book on comparative osteology, contained in his edition of the lectures of Fallopius, extended his studies begun in his work of 1572…

1577

#7990

De arte medica infantium libri quatuor. Quorum duo Priores de tuenda eorum sanitate, posteriores de curandis morbis agunt.

An early illustrated work on pediatrics. The three parts of his book deal with the management of the nurse and her milk, the care and feeding of the new-born, and diseases of children, including skin diseases, and cha…

1578

#8023

Summa y recopilacion de cirugia, con un arte para sangrar, muy util y provechosa.

Second edition, Mexico, 1595: Summa y recopilacion de cirugia, con un arte para sangrar, y examen de barberos ... va añadido en esta segunda impresion el origen ... de las reumas. López de Hinojos was a barber-surge…

1579

#1819.1

Tractado breve de anathomia y chirurgia.

Includes some of the first studies of the plants and botanic remedies of the New World. Second edition, Tractado breve de medicina (1592). This is an abridgement of manuscripts left in Mexico by Francisco Hernández. S…

1580

#13731

Les statutz et ordonnances royalles faictes par les roys de France, sur l'estat de barbier-chirurgien part tout le royaume de France, et confirmé par le roy Henry III de ce nom, roy de France et de Pologne [Mai 1575-13 août 1578].

The first regulations for barber surgeons published in France. https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb338125216

1583

#5817

̓Oφθαλμоδоύλεια das ist, Augendienst.

In this treatise on ophthalmic surgery Bartisch, who limited his practice to ophthalmology and hernia repair, left the first extensively illustrated account of any surgical specialty. Bartisch was a skilful operator a…

1587

#5733.52

De decoratione liber…Additi nunc primum duo tractatus, alter, de varicibus, alter de reficiendo naso.

This work on cosmetics contains Tagliacozzi’s first publication on rhinoplasty – De reficiendo naso – a letter written to Mercuriale in response to inaccurate statements about Tagliacozzi's methods made by Mercuriale …

1588

#3416

A most excellent and compendious method of curing woundes in the head, and in other partes of the body: With other precepts of the same arte, practised and written by that famous man Franciscus Arceus ... and translated into English by Iohn Read, chirurgion: Whereunto is added the exact cure of the caruncle, never before set foorth in the English toung: With a treatise of the fistulae in the fundament, and other places of the body, translated out of Iohannes Ardern: And also the discription of the emplaister called Dia Chalciteos, with its use and vertues: With an apt table for the better finding of the perticular matters, contayned in this present worke.

This translation by surgeon John Read contains the first printing of John of Arderne's writings on his operation for the cure of anal fistula, written originally about 1376. At one time John of Arderne practiced at Ne…