Lot 303
Pharmacopoeia
Rare Books, Manuscripts & Photographs
Auction: Rare Books, Manuscripts & Photographs | 09 May 2007
Description
Medici antiqui omnes. Venice: apud Aldi filios, 1547, folio, Roman letter, printer's anchor and dolphin device within floreated oval border on title-page and verso of last, some woodcut initials, early 18th century French gilt-panelled red morocco, spine in seven gilt compartments, joints neatly repaired, a.e.g., green silk marker, some foxing to title-page
Footnote
Note: BM STC Italian Books. p.371; Adams M 991; Brunet III p. 1567; Graesse IV p. 461; Renouard 140:2; Durling 3050 (imperfect); Wellcome 4181; Osler 3374; Garrison & Morton 54.
An important pharmacopoeia and remedial encyclopaedia comprising the great Latin medical writers of antiquity and the only early edition of the collection. It comprises part at least of the principal medical texts of Celsus, Severius Samonicus, Trotula, Marcellus Empiricus, Scribonius Largus, Soranus, Plinius Secundus, Apuleius, Antonius Musa, Aemilius Macer, Walafridus Strabo, Aurelianus and Priscian. Both content and arrangement indicate the volume was intended as practical work for the medical profession, or at the very least, serious students. This was a curious departure for Paulus Manutius and indeed for the press as a whole, which, apart from a handful of the great classics had generally eschewed the publication of medical works. A poor and much less complete edition had appeared at Basle some twenty years earlier and it may be that it was either undeservedly successful or that it had excited a market which it then failed to satisfy. Certainly the present edition is a substantial and very laboriously composed practical publication which must have represented a significant commercial investment. Even 200 years ago copies were uncommon (viz. Renouard) and it would be unsurprising if they had been printed in limited numbers; the work was not reprinted.
Provenance: Bookplate of Victor A. Schwartz on pastedown, letter (1839) in French, concerning the gift of this copy, pasted to fly, contemporary. inscription in Greek 'Tot Olagkis C' below device