CELSUS, Aulus Cornelius (fl. A.D. 25)

De re medica libri octo , inter Latinos eius professionis autores facilè principis: ad veterum & recentiu[m] exemplarium fidem, necnon doctorum hominum iudicium, summa diligentia excusi. Accessit ... Scribonii Largi ... Compositionu[m] medicamentorum: nunc primum, tineis & blattis, ereptus industria Joannis Ruellii doctoris disertissimi. Parisiis apud Christianum Wechel, sub scuto Basiliensi. M.D. XXIX. [Colophon:] Excudebat Parisiis Simon Silvius Anno Domini. M. D. XXVIII. mense Octobri

      Paris: Simon du Bois for Chrétien Wechel, 1529. Folio: A--B6 C8 A--Y6; *6 2*4 2A--2F6 (blanks Y8 and 2*4), 198 leaves, ff. [20] 131 [1]; [10] 31 [5] including the blanks. Text in Roman letter, with Italic in preliminary matter. Title within a woodcut border, a fine series of 6-line historiated initials and smaller decorated initials. [bound with] GALEN *Liber de plenitudine*. Polybus de salubri victus ratione privatorum. Guinterio Joanne Andernaco interprete. Apuleius Platonicus de herbarum virtutibus. Antonii Benivenii Libellus de abditis nonullis ac mirandis morboru[m] & sanationum causis. Prostant in vico Jacobaeo, apud Christianu[m] Wechel, sub scuto Basileinsi. M. D. XXVIII. *Paris:* Simon du Bois for Chrétien Wechel, 1528 Folio: aa--gg6; AA--CC66 2D4 (--2D4), 63 of 64 leaves, ff. 42; 21, LACKING THE COLOPHON LEAF 2D4. Type and initials as above. Leaf size and condition: 270 x 192mm. Narrow strip cut away from head of first title leaf and a larger strip (27mm) from the foot restored with minimal loss to woodcut border; first title dustsoiled and discoloured, marginal waterstains in prelims; multiple worm holes at the beginning and end of the volume, one or two round holes through the text of the first work, several elongated holes in the text of the second work. After the prelims of the first work clean and fresh copies. Binding: Eighteenth-century English calf. Old rebacking, rubbed. Provenance and annotation: Motto 'Mors Christi mihi vita' and signature 'Hen: Lester' in a sixteenth-century hand on titlepage with a date, 1609, apparently added later; about 85 words of marginal annotation in the first work and 330 in the second in another contemporary hand; engraved arms (unidentified) pasted to verso of title. Walter Pagel (1896--1983), signature dated 1954; B. E. J. Pagel (1930--2007). References: I: Inventaire Chronologiques 1683 state A; Adams C1243; Bird 508; Durling 910; Wellcome 1398; the Scribonius is Garrison--Morton 1785. II: Inventaire Chronologique 1477; Adams G98; Bird 1006; Durling1917; Wellcome 2600. Durling, Chronological census 1528.8. I. First edition, first issue with 2*4 blank (in the second issue a letter by Pellisso dated October 1528 is printed on this leaf) of Ruel's recension of Celsus, De re medica (first edition 1478) including the editio princeps of Scribonius Largus, De compositionibus medicamentorum ; II: first edition, containing the editio princeps of Galen, De plinitudine and later editions of works by Pliny and Benivieni. § An important compendium edited by Jean Ruel, usually catalogued as two separate works but fairly clearly issued as a single entity and usually bound together as here. The first text in the first work is Ruel's edition of Celus De medicina, the oldest Western medical document after the Hippocratic writings: it is of enormous importance for medical historians and 'for four centuries it proved to be an eminently useful handbook of medicine for practitioners' (Grolier Medicine no. 4). This is followed by the editio princeps of Scribonius Largus (fl. AD 40), De compositionibus medicamentorum 'an important compilation of drugs and prescriptions ... Scribonius was the first to describe accurately the preparation of true Opium' (Garrison--Morton). The second work contains the editio princeps of Galen's De plenitudine, translated by Guinter von Andernach, which was not included in editions of the Opera omnia before 1541. This is followed by Polybus, De salubri victus ratione privatorum, also translated by Guinter, the Herbal of Apuleus (first printed in 1481, but early editions are rare, the earliest in the Hunt catalogue is 1537), and Benivieni's Libellus de abditis nonullis ac mirandis morborum et sanationum causis. This last was first printed in 1507, and is the first modern work to contain reports of post-mortem examinations carried out to ascertain the cause of death (see Garrison--Morton 2270 and Osler 3951). The editor, Jean Ruel (1474--1537), produced many scholarly editions and translations -- including the first of Dioscorides -- and is regarded as one of the first popularisers of botany. In this copy, with an English provenance, the annotation is most extensive in the text of Apuleius' Herbal. Literature: R. J. Durling, 'A chronological census of renaissance edition and translations of Galen', J. Warburg (and Courtauld) Institute 24 (1961), 230--305.