PLINIUS SECUNDUS. Historia naturalis - CELSUS. De Medicina.

PLINIUS SECUNDUS, Gaius. Historia naturalis.

Venice, Tommaso de Blavi, 1491

Large folio. 299x207 mm. Contemporary pigskin binding with blind tooling, clasps. 308 unnumbered leaves. Collation 2a-2b8 a-d8 [delta]8 e6 f-z8 &8 [con]8 [rum]8 A-I8 2I6 (aa1 blank). Colophon on l. 2I4r “Venetiis impressum opera ... Thomae de blauis de Alexandria ... M.CCCC.LXXXXI. Die III Mensis Nouembris”. Roman type, 54 lines plus title, initial spaces from 2 to 10 lines with printed guide letters, woodcut printer's device on leaf 2I8r.

Rare Venetian incunabulum with Pliny's monumental work. By his own account Pliny sets out 20,000 facts derived from 2000 works to comprise his encyclopedia of knowledge, the Historia naturalis. While it certainly covers subjects of the physical world, geography, agriculture, anthropology, mathematics, etc., the Historia naturalis also includes literature and arts. Its description of sculpture and painting as well as of techniques such as chasing in silver make it an important source for the history of ancient art. The extensive tables and indexes provided by Pliny attest to its aim as a universal reference work, and the authority attributed to Pliny in the Middle Ages attests in turn to its continued usefulness.

Bound with:

CELSUS, Aulus Cornelius. De medicina.

Venice, Giovanni Rossi, July 8, 1493

LX leaves, [2].Collation: a–i6k–l4: 62 leaves (blank a1). On leaf a2 recto, title “Aurelii Cornelii Celsi Medicinae liber primus incipit”; Colophon on leaf l1v "Venetiis Impressor Ioannes Rubeus Vercellensis fuit, die viii. mensis Iulii .M.cccc.xciii. Venetiis. [8 July 1493]." On leaves l2-l4r 'Tabula'; to paper l4r, register. Roman font, 61 lines plus title, leading spaces from 2 to 10 lines with printed guide letters.

Extremely rare incunabulum. Third edition of one of the first printed medical texts. Celsus's De Medicina, compiled in the 1st century, was first printed in Florence in 1478. Garrison-Morton: “The De Medicina is the oldest Western medical document after the Hippocratic writings … and the first Western history of medicine. … [It] deals with diseases treated by diet and regimen and with those amenable to drugs and surgery. The manuscript of De Medicina was lost during the Middle Ages and re-discovered in Milan in 1443, … one of the first medical books to be printed”

BMC V 417; Bod-Inc C-162; Goff C-366; GW 6458; Hain HC *4837; Klebs 260.3; Norman 426; Osler 289; Pellechet 3466; Proctor 5134; Rhodes 533; Sheppard 4123; Waller 46; Wellcome 1393. Garrison-Morton 20, of the first edition.