Héry, Thierry de
La methode curatoire de la maladie Venerienne
£1,764
Auction: 18 June 2025 from 10:00 BST
Description
vulgairement appellé grosse vairolle, et de la diversité de ses symptomes. Paris: par Matthieu David, en la boutique d'Arnoul L'Angelier, 1552. First edition, 8vo (17 x 10.6cm), [8] 272 [30] pp., 20th-century half sheep, edges retaining early gilt gauffering to a scrolling foliate design, strapwork woodcut border to title-page, text in roman letter and within intersecting manuscript rules in red ink throughout, bound without final errata leaf (t8), title-page with small tear to lower inner corner and effaced early ownership inscription to foot, light marginal finger-soiling [Garrison-Morton 2368; Welcome I 3142; not in Adams]
Footnote
The first book in French on syphilis, and one of the first books on the subject in any language; the work pioneered the treatment of the disease with mercury and is also noted as containing the first modern account of priapism. Syphilis first appeared in Europe in the late 15th century and was named by Girolamo Fracastoro in his 1530 poem Syphilis sive morbus gallicus. A surgeon who had trained at the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris, Thierry de Héry encountered the disease while accompanying the army which François I dispatched to Italy during the Italian War of 1521-1526. His work was reprinted several times well into the second half the 17th century. Only a handful of copies of the first edition have appeared at auction.