BRASAVOLA, A. M. (Antonio Musa), (1500-1555)

De medicamentis tam simplicibus, quam compositis catharticis, quae unicuique humori sunt propria

      [Venice] Venetiis, Apud Juntas, 1552 Octavo. Foliation [20], 220, collated and complete. Contemporary full vellum with yapp edges, lacks ties, title in manuscript to spine, library bookplate to paste-down, damp stain to earlier leaves affecting lower quarter of the page, annotations in an early hand throughout. 'Brasavola, like many physicians of his era, also held doctorates in law and theology and taught these subjects as well as medicine. He was a pupil of Niccolo Leoniceno (Leonicenus), a famous Italian medical humanist who also made an important translation of Hippocrates' Aphorisms. Brasavola served as personal physician to the Popes Paul III, Leo X, Clement VII, and Julius III; to Emperor Charles V, King Francis I, and King Henry VIII. He wrote some seventy books and articles, is said to have performed a large number of tracheotomies, and described over two hundred different kinds of syphilis. Among his many works were an authoritative concordance of Galen and this popular work on herbal medicine, first published in 1536, in which he introduced several new drugs into the pharmacopoeia. The work is in the form of a dialogue among Brasavola, an old apothecary, and an herbalist. It is a lengthy treatise and shows that, while he had made significant advances in presenting his material and his methods, he had not entirely succeeded in freeing himself from the traditional lore and superstitions of the past.' Heirs of Hippocrates 228. Durling 680; Garrison-Morton 1804 (1536 ed.); Waller 1420a (1544 ed.); Wellcome 1045.