TISSARD, François.

[Dialogus, and other works]

      First edition of this Hebrew grammar and Greek reading-book.This copy lacks the title, dedication, and introductory Dialogus on the usefulness of Hebrew and Greek, but the main body of the text, i.e. the Hebrew grammar and the Greek reading-book, is present and complete.The Hebrew grammar (ff. 24-72) marks the first use of Hebrew printing types in France.The Greek reading-book (ff. 72v-90) is a follow-up to the author's Greek grammar, which the same printer, Gilles de Gourmont, had published a year before (coincidentally the first use of Greek types in France). The passages for reading include (with interlinear Latin translation) the opening chapter of St. John's Gospel, the Lord's Prayer, hymns, as also the Hippocratic Oath. The Oath was first printed in Latin at the end of Perotti's De generibus metrorum, Verona, c. 1483. Another version of the Oath by Pietro Paulo Vergerio also occurs at the end of a medical miscellany entitled Articella printed in Venice, 1483. This is apparently its first appearance in the original Greek. As an expression of Hippocratic ideals it has since won world wide currency, and it remains common practice for medical students today to take this Oath of conduct at the completion of their studies. OCLC records two copies, one at Cambridge and the other at University of Illinois. Paris, Gilles de Gourmont, 29 January 1508.