Lot 1169
1169
VIDIUS, Vidus (=Guido GUIDI). Chirurgia è Græco in Latinum conversa. Paris, P. Gaultier, 1544. (36), 533, (1) pp. W. num. woodcut illustrations after Primaticcio and Jean Santorinos, ornamental metalcut initials. Roman and Greek types. Fol. 18th c. full vellum. (2 lvs. missing: q3 & q6 are replaced by duplicates of m3 & m6, else a very fine and extremely clean copy).
One of the most beautiful science 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 (now Florence, Laur. Plut. LXXIV, 7) was used by the Florentine physician Guido Guidi for the preparation of this Latin translation. Guidi, a native of Florence and grandson of the painter Domenico del Ghirlandaio, was physician to King Francis I of France and the first professor of medicine at the Collge de France (1542-48). While in Paris he shared quarters with Benvenuto Cellini, who also accommodated the press that produced this edition. The woodcuts, probably by Franois Jollat, were based on drawings by Primaticcio and Jean Santorinos that were copied in turn from the tenth-century codex. - Roberts & Tomlinson, p. 234: "This work (…) stands alongside Vesalius' work on anatomy, and Fuch's on botany (…) all are humanist publications remarkable for the excellence of their woodcut illustrations (…)"; Choulant-Frank pp. 211-2; G-M 4406.1; Osler 155; Waller 1960; Wellcome 6596; Norman 954. - From the library of J. van der Hoeven and with his bookplate.€ 6000
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