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Three medical treatises by a famous 16th-century physician on pediatrics, toxicology and on Hippocrates

MERCURIALE, Hieronymus.
De morbis puerorum. Item de venenis et morbis venenosis. Quibus adiuncta est Censura Hippocratea.

With woodcut printer's device on general title, vignettes on the separate titles of second and third work, woodcut initials, and head- and tail-pieces in text.

With woodcut printer's device on general title, vignettes on the separate titles of second and third work, woodcut initials, and head- and tail-pieces in text.

With woodcut printer's device on general title, vignettes on the separate titles of second and third work, woodcut initials, and head- and tail-pieces in text.

With woodcut printer's device on general title, vignettes on the separate titles of second and third work, woodcut initials, and head- and tail-pieces in text.

With woodcut printer's device on general title, vignettes on the separate titles of second and third work, woodcut initials, and head- and tail-pieces in text.



Basilae, Ex off. Pernea per Conrad. Waldkirch, 1584. Three works in one vol. 8vo. Contemporary blind-stamped three-quarter pigskin, with monogram D*L*H and date 1611, written on front cover, ribbed spine with paper title-label lettered in ink. With woodcut printer's device on general title, vignettes on the separate titles of second and third work, woodcut initials, and head- and tail-pieces in text. (8), 356, (2 blank); (8), 134, (2 blank); (2), 24, (40) pp.

First edition of this collection of three medical treatises by the famous Italian physician and philologist Hieronymus, or Girolamo Mercuriale (1530-1606), professor of medicine in Padua (1569), Bologna and Pisa.
Ad 1: One of the first books entirely devoted to pediatrics, in which Mercuriali observed contemporary trends in child-rearing. The work is based on the lecture notes of Joannes Groscensius (Jan H. Chrosciejowski), one of Mercuriale's students, and was first published at Venice in 1583. The work is divided in three parts. In the first part, Mercuriale treats diseases of children, like speech impediments, bed-wetting, kidney stones, hiccup, etc. The second part is on fevers of children, and the third part is on worms, including Mercuriale's translation of Alexander Trallianus treatise on the subject. To expell the worms from inside, sour, bitter and oily nutrition was  prescribed, and at the same time, sweet clysters were prepared to attract the worms to the outside. Mercuriale is the first to describe the percussion of the scull, for a diagnosis of the hydrocephalus (waterhead). Although the work is filled with references to Arabian, Greek and Roman authors, Mercuriale does not slavishly follow their opinion, as was common at the time, but he uses his own critical judgement in the interpretation of their observations.
Ad 2: De venenis et morbis venenosis, an excellent work on toxicology, appeared at Frankfurt and Venice in the same year as the present edition. The work is edited by Albertus Scheligius, and dedicated by him to prince Stephen I of Poland. Poison and poisonous stings, but also poisonous herbs and mushrooms are discussed, diagnoses and cures, and what is known on the subject through the authors from classical antiquity, Mercuriale's favourite field of interest. He knew the classical works extremely well, and through his works and courses, medical knowledge from antiquity became available again for his contemporaries.
Ad 3: Famous critical treatise on Hippocrates. Published at Venice in 1583, the Censura de Hippocratis operibus, gives in short a survey of the most important subjects treated in Hippocrates' works.
With some ms. annotations in margins and on blanks.- (Fore-edge of binding eaten by mice; library stamps and numbers on title; first quire half loose; title-page with old ownership's stamp, owbership's entry (... Schulte (or Schulze, 1734)) and traces of paper ticket).
VD16 M 4817; Adams M 1328; Durling 3100; Hirsch IV, 209; this edition not in Wellcome nor in BM.

Related Subjects: 16th Century  Medicine  Philology  Treatises 

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