FABRICIUS von HILDEN, Wilhelm. [with] SEVERINO, Marco Aurelio.

ILLUSTRATED PATHOLOGY

FABRICIUS von HILDEN, Wilhelm. [with] SEVERINO, Marco Aurelio. Opera observationum et curationum medico-chirurgicarum quae extant omnia. [with] De efficaci medicina lib. III.

Frankfurt, Johann Beyer, 1646.

£2,950.00

FIRST COLLECTED EDITION of I, FIRST EDITION of II. Folio. 2 works in 1, I: pp. [24], 1044, [20] + 1 leaf of plates; II: pp. [16], 297, [15]. Roman letter, with Italic, double column. I: engraved architectural title with author’s portrait, Hippocrates, Dioscorides, and three scenes (illness, medical instruments, healing), 191 small woodcuts and 21 small engravings of medical instruments and illnesses, engraved plate with landscape of German spas, decorated initials and ornaments. Light browning, small repair at blank of G6r, occasional very minor marginal foxing. II: engraved title with author’s portrait, personifications of the four humours, Voluptas, and Dolor, 25 small woodcuts with medical equipment, decorated initials and ornaments. Slight browning, ink spot to upper fore-edge. Good copies in contemporary German vellum, lacking ties, yapp edges, early ms title to spine, a.e.r. ms bibliographical note to fep, autograph ‘D August Burchard Vrat(?) 1837’, C19 ms ‘herrgott’, and ‘Christoph Helwig Med. D. & P.P. emit Gryphiswaldiae a[nn]o 1667’ to title.

From the library of the German physician Christoph Helwig (1642-90), trained at Leipzig and professor of medicine at Greifswald, his hometown, from 1667. In the 1660s, he travelled extensively to London, Paris, and Italy. Johann August Burchard (1800-66) was professor of medicine at Breslau, and author of some works on pathology.

A, good, clean copy of the first collected edition, charmingly illustrated, of Wilhelm Fabricius von Hilden’s (1560-1634) works. Raised in a poor family, Fabricius could not afford to study at university, so he became a physician by working as an apprentice barber-surgeon. ‘This folio edition of his collected works includes his separately published monographs on dysentery, burns, lithotomy, and anatomy. Congenital malformations, skull fractures, carcinoma of the eye and penis, hydrocele, gangrene, mineral water baths, the concept of removing some healthy tissue along with the necrotic tissue in amputation, and a special operation for hernia are among the many topics discussed in his writings. Among the numerous instruments and appliances he designed were a bullet extractor, a tourniquet for controlling hemorrhage, a urinal for ambulatory use, and a field-chest of drugs and instruments for use by the army’ (Heirs of Hippocrates). Originally published in 6 parts, ‘Observationum and curationum’ is especially interesting as it comprises 600 surgical observations, with an account of the condition, treatment, and prognosis, and references to similar cases as described by other major physicians of the time, e.g., Bahunin and Harvey.

Fabricius’ work was here issued with Marco Aurelio Severino’s (1580-1656) professor of surgery and medicine at Naples, and correspondent of important personalities such as Harvey and Vesling. His desire to attempt new procedures often brought him to clash with other practitioners. His ‘De efficaci medicina’, here in its first edition, begins with an examination of the state of surgery at the time, its efficacy, and, in two sections in particular, a defense from the accusation of causing needless pain to his patients (in this case, due to a new method for the removal of varicose veins) as well as ‘cruelty’ in the administration of surgery. Part I discusses angiology, with sections on the dissection of vessels, phlebotomy, and numerous techniques of incision to operate on blood vessels. Part II examines surgery for the healing of bones, and Part III focuses on surgical ‘pyrotechnia’, that is the use of burning irons and fire (cauterization) for therapeutical purposes, following methods employed by the ancient Egyptians.

Krivatsy 3843 (issued with Severino’s work); Heirs of Hippocrates 396. Not in Wellcome or Osler.
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