Forum Rare Books

The most influential pharmacopoeia of the 16th and 17th century

CORDUS, Valerius. Novum ... dispensatorium, hoc est, pharmacorum conficiendorum ratio: quam ab ipso olim auctam, nunc à quamplurimis mendis expurgatam in lucem edimus.
Venice, Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1563. 12mo. Contemporary blind-tooled calf, spine reinforced with white paper. [24], 444 pp. Full description

€ 4,850

Early Printing - 16th century Herbals & Medical Botany Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Pharmacy / Pharmacopaea

Important source on mediaeval pharmacology: the fundamental Renaissance work for the study of medicinal plants

DIOSCORIDES, Pedanius. In hoc volumine haec continentu.r [!] Ioannis Baptistae Egnatii Veneti in Dioscoridem ab Hermolao Barbaro tralatum annotamenta. Quibus morborum et remediorum vocabula obscuriora in usum etiam mediocriter eruditorum explicantur ...
Venice, Francesco Barbaro & Giovanni Bartolomeo Gabiano for Giovanni & Gregorio De Gregori, 1 February 1516. 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio (22.5 x 32 cm). Later vellum with old gold-tooled red spine label. [36], “CXXXIII” [= CXXXIV], 106 ll. Full description

€ 8,500

Early Printing - 16th century Herbals & Medical Botany Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

First edition of Ruel's translation of a foundational work on pharmacology

DIOSCORIDES, Pedanius. De medicinali materia libri quinque. De virulentis animalibus, et venenis canerabioso, et eorum noti, ac remedijs libri quattuor.
(Colophon: Paris, Henri Estienne, 1516). Folio. With the title within a decorative metalcut( ?) panel. Set in roman types. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment; rebacked in calf, with new endpapers, but preserving the original paste-downs. [12], 157, [2], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 18,000

Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Medicine Classical Antiquity Early Printing - 16th century Herbals & Medical Botany Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Pharmacy / Pharmacopaea

Extremely rare issue of a pocket edition of "the most influential treatise of classical antiquity in Greek on the natural substances used for the preparation of medicines"

DIOSCORIDES, Pedanius. De medica materia libri sex.
Lyon, Thibaud Payen (Theobaldus Paganus), 1546 (colophon: 1547). 16mo. With a woodcut device on title-page and some woodcut initials. 18th-century calf, rebacked with original gold-tooled backstrip laid down. [30], 543, [147] pp. Full description

€ 3,950

Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Medicine Early Printing - 16th century Herbals & Medical Botany Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

Scholarly medical botany for a broad public, Plantin edition with a new chapter

DODOENS (DODONAEUS), Rembert. Medicinalium observationum exempla rara. Accessere & alia quaedam, quorum elenchum pagina post praefationem exhibet.
Leiden, Christoffel Plantin, 1585. Small 8vo (16 x 10 cm). With Plantin's woodcut compasses device on the title-page. Contemporary reversed parchment (made from the lower part of a leaf from a 16th-century legal document in German, with a reference to Basel). [16], 298, [6] pp. Full description

€ 5,500

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Plantin Press

Rare second French edition of an influential pharmacopoeia

DUBOIS, Jacques (Jacobus SYLVIUS), translated by André CAILLE. La pharmacopee. Qui est la maniere de bien choisir & preparer les simples, & de bien faires les compositions: despartie en trois livres ...
Lyon, Louis Cloquemin, 1580. 16mo (12.5 x 8 cm). With Cloquemin's woodcut device on the title-page. Recased in contemporary(?) sheepskin parchment. [26], 686, [6], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,750

Early Printing - 16th century France Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

1572 pharmaceutical work on medicines from the Greeks and Arabs

DU BOYS (SYLVIUS), Jean (Joannis de BOIS). In methodum miscendorum medicamentorum, quae in quotidiano sunt usu observationes, ex Graecic, Arabibus, & Neotericis.
Paris, Jaques Kerver, 1572. 8vo. With Kerver's woodcut device on title-page, depicting a unicorn with the family's arms, and a large cast ornament on the otherwise blank last page. Contemporary limp vellum, traces of ties. [8], 134, [10] ll. Full description

€ 4,500

Early Printing - 16th century Islamic Art, Culture & Science Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

First edition of a leading medical-pharmaceutical work, with stunning woodcut headpieces and initials

DUPUIS (PUTEANUS), Guillaume. De medicamentorum quomodocunque purgantium facultatibus, nusquam anteà neque dictis, neque per ordinem digestis libri duo ...
Lyon, Macé Bonhomme, 1552. 4to. With a woodcut device on the title-page no doubt made for this edition (showing Hypocrates and Galenus, with motto, "In omnem terram exivit doctrina eorum"), finely executed arabesque woodcut headpieces and numerous woodcut initials with pictorial decoration (4 series, the two largest especially fine). Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties. [8], 179, [1] pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Pharmacy / Pharmacopaea

First edition of surgical works by William Harvey’s Padua anatomy professor

FABRICI, Girolamo (Hieronymus FABRICIUS). Pentateuchos cheirurgicum.
Frankfurt am Main, [Zacharias Palthenius for] Peter Fischer, 1592. 8vo. With Palthenius's woodcut device on title-page. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [16], 554, [6] pp. Full description

€ 5,000

Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)

Last edition during Fuchs life of his own revision of his first publication, promoting medical "simples" originally published 12 years before his great herbal, De historia stirpium

FUCHS, Leonart. Paradoxorum medicinae libri tres...
Paris, Charlotta Guillard, widow of Claude Chevallon, 1555. 8vo. With some woodcut initials. The main text (and shoulder notes) set in italic type, the preface and long chapter headings in roman and long passages in Greek. Contemporary vellum over thin boards with title in ink on spine and on lower edge, modern endpapers. [20], 239 ll. Full description

€ 1,000