Details
CELSUS, Aulus Cornelius (ca.25 B.C. - ca.50 A.D.). De medicina. Edited by Bartholomaeus Fontius (1445-1513). Florence: Nicolaus Laurentii, 1478.
Chancery 2° and royal half-sheet 4° (270 x 191 mm). Collation: π6 a4 b-i6 l-z6 &6 aa-gg6 hh4 A8 (π1r blank, π1v letter by Fonzio to Francesco Sassetti, π2r text, hh4v colophon, A1r table, A8 blank). 196 leaves. 34 lines and headline. Types 2:106R (text), 3:92R (table). Initial spaces with guide-letters, catchword at end of quire π only. (Minor worming, mainly marginal in first 3 and last 4 quires, minor printing fault affecting two letters on n4v, small tear in gutter at head of s5, marginal paper repair in f6, tear in inner margin on n6 repaired.) Plum straight-grained morocco over pasteboard, narrow border of fillets in blind on sides, spine in compartments with gilt lettering, gilt turn-ins, yellow endpapers, gilt edges, (lower back corner slightly bumped, spine faded), by Charles Lewis (not before 1827).
Provenance: 16th-century foliation cropped, and faint 16th-century annotations (washed).
FIRST EDITION. The first organized treatise on medicine to be printed. Books VII and VIII deal with surgery and anatomy. Other sections record dietetic, pharmaceutical and surgical treatment of disease, as well as plastic operations, dental practice, insanity, etc. Celsus had originally written an encyclopedia covering agriculture, military arts, rhetoric and other subjects, but only these medical books survive. Even these were hardly known in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, as it was only in 1426 that the text was rediscovered in Siena. This first edition was prepared by Bartolomeo Fonzio using two manuscripts, one written by his brother Niccolò, and one which was probably owned at the time by Francesco Sassetti, the wealthy Medici banker and collector of manuscripts. Fonzio, who acted as Sassetti's librarian, dedicates this edition to his patron. Both manuscripts used by Fonzio are now in Florence (Laur.73.4, Laur.73.1). (See A.C. de la Mare, "The library of Francesco Sassetti," Cultural Aspects of the Italian Renaissance, ed. C.H. Clough (1976), 160-201, no.78).
In the present volume the misprint of 'quartus' for 'quintus' on o5 has been corrected in the press. Quires &-A and sheets d2.5, e1.6, g1.6, h2.5, n2.5, y1.6, z1.6, 2.5 are quarto, the rest are folio.
HC *4835; GW 6456; BMC VI, 627 (IB. 27079, 27079a-b); Goff C-364; Osler 147; Klebs 261.1; Wellcome 1392; Garrison & Morton 20, 'He was the first important medical historian'; Dibner, Heralds of Science 119; Stillwell, Awakening of Interest in Science, no.331; Flodr, Celsus 1; Botfield 170-171
Chancery 2° and royal half-sheet 4° (270 x 191 mm). Collation: π6 a4 b-i6 l-z6 &6 aa-gg6 hh4 A8 (π1r blank, π1v letter by Fonzio to Francesco Sassetti, π2r text, hh4v colophon, A1r table, A8 blank). 196 leaves. 34 lines and headline. Types 2:106R (text), 3:92R (table). Initial spaces with guide-letters, catchword at end of quire π only. (Minor worming, mainly marginal in first 3 and last 4 quires, minor printing fault affecting two letters on n4v, small tear in gutter at head of s5, marginal paper repair in f6, tear in inner margin on n6 repaired.) Plum straight-grained morocco over pasteboard, narrow border of fillets in blind on sides, spine in compartments with gilt lettering, gilt turn-ins, yellow endpapers, gilt edges, (lower back corner slightly bumped, spine faded), by Charles Lewis (not before 1827).
Provenance: 16th-century foliation cropped, and faint 16th-century annotations (washed).
FIRST EDITION. The first organized treatise on medicine to be printed. Books VII and VIII deal with surgery and anatomy. Other sections record dietetic, pharmaceutical and surgical treatment of disease, as well as plastic operations, dental practice, insanity, etc. Celsus had originally written an encyclopedia covering agriculture, military arts, rhetoric and other subjects, but only these medical books survive. Even these were hardly known in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, as it was only in 1426 that the text was rediscovered in Siena. This first edition was prepared by Bartolomeo Fonzio using two manuscripts, one written by his brother Niccolò, and one which was probably owned at the time by Francesco Sassetti, the wealthy Medici banker and collector of manuscripts. Fonzio, who acted as Sassetti's librarian, dedicates this edition to his patron. Both manuscripts used by Fonzio are now in Florence (Laur.73.4, Laur.73.1). (See A.C. de la Mare, "The library of Francesco Sassetti," Cultural Aspects of the Italian Renaissance, ed. C.H. Clough (1976), 160-201, no.78).
In the present volume the misprint of 'quartus' for 'quintus' on o5 has been corrected in the press. Quires &-A and sheets d2.5, e1.6, g1.6, h2.5, n2.5, y1.6, z1.6, 2.5 are quarto, the rest are folio.
HC *4835; GW 6456; BMC VI, 627 (IB. 27079, 27079a-b); Goff C-364; Osler 147; Klebs 261.1; Wellcome 1392; Garrison & Morton 20, 'He was the first important medical historian'; Dibner, Heralds of Science 119; Stillwell, Awakening of Interest in Science, no.331; Flodr, Celsus 1; Botfield 170-171