Chinese Medicine. CLEYER. Specimen medicinae sinicae, sive opuscula medica ad mentem sinensium.

CLEYER, Andreas. Specimen medicinae sinicae, sive opuscula medica ad mentem sinensium.

Frankfurt, Johann Peter Zubrodt, 1682

In small 4to; 205x167 mm. Ancient brown marbled full leather binding, gilt decorations on the spine, dentelle on the board edge, marbled flyleaves. Pages [4], 48, 99, [9], 54, 2 blank, 16. Title page printed in red and black with copper-engraved printer's device, several illustrations in the text, 30 full-page engraved plates outside the text. 19th-century ex libris ‘Brion, doctoris medici’ and ex libris ‘André Dernier’ glued to the inside cover. Slight defects to the binding and browning on several pages; good copy.

First edition of the first illustrated work on Chinese medicine published in Europe. The curious illustrations, taken from a Chinese source, probably the Lei ching by Chang Chieh-Pin (1624), include several anatomical engravings of organs, with indications of acupuncture points. Norman: “the first acupuncture diagrams published in the West.” Lowendahl: “… 30 engraved copies of Chinese medical illustrations … Title printed in red and black with engraved vignette, 72 small woodcuts in text representing Chinese symbols for the pulse, 36 small woodcuts representing diseases of the tongue, one full-page woodcuts of the hands, two large cuts of diagrams representing the circulation of the blood, and eight tables (on nine pages) showing the variations of the pulse.” 

Edited by Andreas Cleyer, a physician employed by the East India Company, the texts, drawn from various Chinese medical treatises, including Wang Shu-Ho's Mo Ching (ca. 280 BC), were translated by the Polish Jesuit Michael Boym. They primarily deal with theories relating to the pulse, and the close connection with acupuncture is extensively discussed. One chapter provides remedies for various types of pulse disorders, while another on materia medica lists and describes 289 plants, with phonetic transcriptions of their Chinese names and their Latin names where the plants have been identified. The final section contains 36 descriptions of various pathological symptoms, such as the appearance of the tongue, illustrated by woodcuts of tongues with captions. Cleyer, greatly influenced by Chinese theories, was the first European physician to advocate the practice of regular observation of the pulse.

Choulant-Frank, pp. 362-369; Cordier Sinica II, 1470-71; Garrison-Morton 6492; Lust 1183; Morrison II, 438; NLM/Krivatsy 1734-35; Norman 489; Pfister pp. 274-75; Waller 9107; Wellcome II, p. 359; Lowendahl 2008, I, pp. 88-89.

See B. Szczesniak, John Floyer and Chinese Medicine in Osiris, Vol. 11 1954, pp. 127-156.

Choulant-Frank, pp. 362-369; Cordier Sinica II, 1470-71; Garrison-Morton 6492; Lust 1183; Morrison II, 438; NLM/Krivatsy 1734-35; Norman 489; Pfister pp. 274-75; Waller 9107; Wellcome II, p. 359; Lowendahl 2008, I, pp. 88-89

Cfr.: B. Szczesniak, John Floyer and Chinese Medicine in Osiris, Vol. 11 1954, pp. 127-156.