GUIDI, Guido (1508-1569). Chirurgia. Translated from Greek into Latin by the author. Paris: Pierre Gaultier, 1544.
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GUIDI, Guido (1508-1569). Chirurgia. Translated from Greek into Latin by the author. Paris: Pierre Gaultier, 1544.

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GUIDI, Guido (1508-1569). Chirurgia. Translated from Greek into Latin by the author. Paris: Pierre Gaultier, 1544.

2° (352 x 238mm). 210 woodcut text illustrations showing bandaging techniques and surgical and orthopaedic apparatus after drawings attributed either to Francesco Primaticcio or the school of Francesco Salviati, 30 full-page, ornamental initials. (First two gatherings with mostly extensive marginal repairs, repairs also affecting margins of G3-G4, including title, closed tear in margin of C1, a few leaves with mainly marginal waterstaining, light spotting, lacking the final blank.) Modern old-style calf. Provenance: Joseph de Ciconiis (surgeon, of the island of Burano at Venice, inscription dated 28 April 1721 indicating presentation to:) — ?Cesare de Negris) — Simon de Negris (name on title with:) — Antonius Maria (in same hand as previous).

FIRST EDITION of Guido Guidi's translation into Latin. One of the most beautiful scientific books of the Renaissance, this edition includes Latin translations of treatises on surgery by Hippocrates, Galen, Oribasius, and others, with commentaries by Galen and other ancient writers. Hippocrates' treatise on dislocations and Soranus' work on bandages are illustrated with woodcuts, many of them full-page, which illustrate the treatments discussed in the text. Both texts and illustrations derive from a tenth-century illustrated Greek manuscript compiled by the Byzantine physician Nicetas. Brought to Italy by Janus Lascaris in 1495, this codex was used by the Florentine physician Guido Guidi for the preparation of this Latin translation. Guidi was physician to King Francis I of France and the first professor of medicine at the Collège de France (1542-1548). While in Paris he shared quarters with Benvenuto Cellini, who also accommodated the press that produced this edition. The woodcuts, probably by Francois Jollat, were based on drawings by Primaticcio and Jean Santorinos that were copied in turn from the tenth-century codex. These drawings survive, together with Guidi's reference to the artists, in the dedication manuscript of the translation presented to Francis I. The origin of the designs has been traced back to the first century B.C.; they were undoubtedly transmitted directly from Antiquity to Byzantium and so may be regarded as embodying the genuine Hippocratic tradition of surgical practice (H. Schne, Apollonius von Kitium, Leipzig 1896). Choulant-Frank pp. 211-2; Dibner, Heralds 118; Garrison-Morton 4406.1; Mortimer French 542; Durling 2204; Norman 954; Osler 155; Waller 1960; Wellcome I, 6596.
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