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Highlights from the Royal Society of Medicine
CELSUS, A. Cornelius (c.25 B.C.-c. A.D. 50)
De medicina. Edited by Bartholomaeus Fontius (1445-1513). Florence: Nicolaus Laurentii, Alamanus, 1478.
Details
CELSUS, A. Cornelius (c.25 B.C.-c. A.D. 50)
De medicina. Edited by Bartholomaeus Fontius (1445-1513). Florence: Nicolaus Laurentii, Alamanus, 1478.
First edition of the oldest Western work on medicine after the Hippocratic corpus, and the first organised treatise on medicine to be printed. Rare; only one other copy sold at auction in almost a century recorded in RBH. Written in the first century A.D. as part of a larger, now lost, encyclopaedic work, De medicina was recovered in the 15th century when several early manuscripts came to light. It ‘deals with diseases treatable by diet and regimen, and with those amenable to drugs and surgery. In the first category are the earliest references to insanity and heart disease, while the surgical chapters contain the first accounts of the use of ligature, excellent descriptions of lateral lithotomy, and herniotomy, and the earliest discussion, in reference to the repair of mutilations, of what we now call plastic surgery’ (Norman). As ‘the greatest medical treatise from ancient Rome’ (Garrison-Morton), it served to establish medical history of Antiquity, as well as quickly becoming a standard text for medical practitioners.
This is a highly bibliophile copy. The contemporary artist of its exuberant rubrication identifies himself as Henricus de Breda of Brabant, and, more recently, it was owned by John Eliot Hodgkin, whose extensive collection of books, coins, prints, medals and pottery was published in a 3-volume catalogue entitled Rariora, opening with the exclamation: ‘The joy of collecting!’ (1902); the books were dispersed at auction in 1914. Many of his books – as here – contain his large printed label at the back for recording his bibliographical notes on the edition and copy. HC *4835; GW 6456; BMC VI, 627; BSB Ink. C-207; Bod-inc C-160; BSB-Ink C-207; CIBN C-207; Klebs 260.1; Dibner Heralds 119; Flodr, Celsus 1; Garrison-Morton 20; Goff C-364; Norman 424; Osler Incunabula medica 147; ISTC ic00364000.
Chancery folio and royal half-sheet 4to (276 x 200mm). 196 leaves, with blank A8, table bound at front. Headline of o5r reads correctly ‘Quintus’, and the 12 re-set leaves are in the state described in CIBN. Contemporary decoration in red and blue with exuberant major initials by Henricus de Breda of Brabant, who identifies himself as the rubricator and binder of the volume, contemporary ms. foliation. (Occasional light spotting, tiny puncture in upper margin, blue rubrication occasionally washed, minor dampstain in f3.4 and t5, u-x, some faint marginal cockling, a few small wormholes at end.) Late 18th-century red morocco, thin gilt border on sides, gilt spine with urn tool, gilt edges, some quire guards (lightly rubbed). Provenance: Henricus de Breda of Brabant, rubricator and binder (contemporary inscription at end) – annotations in contemporary and later hands (some trimmed) – bibliographical notes in French on front flyleaf – John Eliot Hodgkin (1829-1912; bookplate at front and his ‘Annotatio’ plate with bibliographical notes at end recording his acquisition from Quaritch, 1878, £14.14.0; sold Sotheby's 12 May 1914, lot 281 to Quaritch) – Albert J. Chalmers (1870-1920; armorial bookplate; presented by his widow in 1922 to:) – Royal Society of Medicine (pictorial bookplate recording the Chalmers gift; stamp on flyleaf).
De medicina. Edited by Bartholomaeus Fontius (1445-1513). Florence: Nicolaus Laurentii, Alamanus, 1478.
First edition of the oldest Western work on medicine after the Hippocratic corpus, and the first organised treatise on medicine to be printed. Rare; only one other copy sold at auction in almost a century recorded in RBH. Written in the first century A.D. as part of a larger, now lost, encyclopaedic work, De medicina was recovered in the 15th century when several early manuscripts came to light. It ‘deals with diseases treatable by diet and regimen, and with those amenable to drugs and surgery. In the first category are the earliest references to insanity and heart disease, while the surgical chapters contain the first accounts of the use of ligature, excellent descriptions of lateral lithotomy, and herniotomy, and the earliest discussion, in reference to the repair of mutilations, of what we now call plastic surgery’ (Norman). As ‘the greatest medical treatise from ancient Rome’ (Garrison-Morton), it served to establish medical history of Antiquity, as well as quickly becoming a standard text for medical practitioners.
This is a highly bibliophile copy. The contemporary artist of its exuberant rubrication identifies himself as Henricus de Breda of Brabant, and, more recently, it was owned by John Eliot Hodgkin, whose extensive collection of books, coins, prints, medals and pottery was published in a 3-volume catalogue entitled Rariora, opening with the exclamation: ‘The joy of collecting!’ (1902); the books were dispersed at auction in 1914. Many of his books – as here – contain his large printed label at the back for recording his bibliographical notes on the edition and copy. HC *4835; GW 6456; BMC VI, 627; BSB Ink. C-207; Bod-inc C-160; BSB-Ink C-207; CIBN C-207; Klebs 260.1; Dibner Heralds 119; Flodr, Celsus 1; Garrison-Morton 20; Goff C-364; Norman 424; Osler Incunabula medica 147; ISTC ic00364000.
Chancery folio and royal half-sheet 4to (276 x 200mm). 196 leaves, with blank A8, table bound at front. Headline of o5r reads correctly ‘Quintus’, and the 12 re-set leaves are in the state described in CIBN. Contemporary decoration in red and blue with exuberant major initials by Henricus de Breda of Brabant, who identifies himself as the rubricator and binder of the volume, contemporary ms. foliation. (Occasional light spotting, tiny puncture in upper margin, blue rubrication occasionally washed, minor dampstain in f3.4 and t5, u-x, some faint marginal cockling, a few small wormholes at end.) Late 18th-century red morocco, thin gilt border on sides, gilt spine with urn tool, gilt edges, some quire guards (lightly rubbed). Provenance: Henricus de Breda of Brabant, rubricator and binder (contemporary inscription at end) – annotations in contemporary and later hands (some trimmed) – bibliographical notes in French on front flyleaf – John Eliot Hodgkin (1829-1912; bookplate at front and his ‘Annotatio’ plate with bibliographical notes at end recording his acquisition from Quaritch, 1878, £14.14.0; sold Sotheby's 12 May 1914, lot 281 to Quaritch) – Albert J. Chalmers (1870-1920; armorial bookplate; presented by his widow in 1922 to:) – Royal Society of Medicine (pictorial bookplate recording the Chalmers gift; stamp on flyleaf).
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