The earliest public document in the vernacular containing legislation governing midwives. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The first Spanish anatomy book in the Spanish language, the second anatomy book ever published in Spain, and the work that introduced Vesalian illustrations to Spain. The text is a version of Henri de Mondeville’s medieval anatomy. The 12 anatomical woodcuts may have been executed by the printer, Sebastian Martinez.

The first original scientific herbal written by an Englishman, and the first scientific herbal published in the English language. The illustrations were taken from the blocks cut for the 8vo edition of Fuchs (1546). Turner was a strongly unorthodox thinker whose stubborn Protestant convictions forced him into exile on the Continent during the Catholic reaction at the end of the reign of Henry VIII, and again during the reign of Mary. He had a varied and turbulent career as naturalist, theologian and physician. Parts 2 and 3 were produced in English in Cologne, 1562 and 1568, while Turner was an exile in Germany. Part 3 was issued only with a reprint of Parts 1 and 2.

 In the above work, Laguna, the "Spanish Galen," described a method of excising vesical caruncles for the first time. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

This, Belon’s first biological work, is regarded as the earliest modern scientific work in the field of comparative anatomy. Finely illustrated with woodcuts. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Gesner's Historia animalium is considered one of the starting points of modern zoology; it contains 4,500 pages and nearly 1,000 woodcuts, some by Albrecht Dürer. The illustrations are the first original zoological illustrations, and the first naturalistic representations of animals to be published in print. His encyclopedic work includes the names of the known animals in ancient and modern languages, together with a mass of information regarding them. Vol. 1 on four-footed mammals was published in 1551; Vol. 2 on egg-laying quadrupeds (reptiles and amphibia) was issued in 1554; Vol. 3. on birds in 1555; Vol. 4 on fish and aquatic animals in 1558. Vol. 5 on snakes and scorpions was issued posthumously in 1587.

In this work Gesner attempted to build a connection between ancient knowledge of the animal world, and what was known at his time. He compiled it from ancient and medieval texts, including ancient naturalists like Aristotle, Pliny the Elder, and Aelian, and even the medieval Physiologus. To this information he added his own observations, and those of his correspondents, in an attempt to formulate a comprehensive description of the natural history of animals, with detailed descriptions of their daily habits and movements, and their uses in medicine and nutrition.

The work was translated into German and published by Froschauer between 1557 and 1563. Portions were translated into English by Edward Topsell as The historie of four-footed beasts. London, 1607, and The historie of serpents (1608). These English translations were combined as The history of four-footed beasts and serpents (1658).

Lusitano has been credited with early recognition of the circulation of the blood. How much he might have understood the circulation remains in doubt; however, through dissections of the Azygos vein, he was the first to observe and record his observations of the venous valves.
In Centuria I, paragraph (Curatio) 513 Lusitano described how, in 1547, he performed an experiment before some scholars from the University of Ferrara, blowing air into the lower part of the azygos, and showing that the vena cava would not be inflated. It was not possible for the air to escape because of the valve or operculum mentioned. The anatomist Giambattista Canano, witnessed these experiments, and discovery of the valves was later attributed to him by mistake.

Of 16th century Jewish physicians, Lusitano may have been the most significant in terms of the number of his scientific contributions and the extent of his publications.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

In this very early work on gunshot wounds Maggi, Professor of Surgery at Bologna, showed that not all gunshot wounds suppurated and he discarded cauterization, treating such wounds with white of egg and salt water.

De Héry made a fortune from treating syphilitic patients. He recommended mercurial inunctions and guaiac internally.

First English book on sweating sickness, and the first devoted to a single disease to be published in England. Caius’s work appeared a year after the last epidemic visit of the disease. From it we learn that the disease was febrile, the sweating merely a manifestation of the fever, and that it was accompanied by pain in the limbs, nausea, vomiting, and delirium. A facsimile edition of the book was published in New York, 1937; it also appears in Gruner (No. 5524) and in the 1844, 1846, and 1859 editions of No. 1678.

Basing his work on Aristotle, Wotton rejected the fantastic additions which had accrued to the writings of the latter during the Middle Ages. His book was beautifully printed but not illustrated. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Library, Internet Archive, at this link.

Aretaeus, a Greek physician who lived during the reign of Nero or Vespasian, wrote a general treatise on diseases which displays great accuracy in the detail of symptoms, and is of great value in the diagnosis of disease. His work, written in Ionic Greek, survived in relatively complete form. It consists of 8 books, the Latin translation of the titles of which are De causis et signis acutorum morborum (2 books), De causis et signis diuturnorum morborum (2 books), De curatione acutorum morborum (2 books), and De curatione diuturnorum morborum (2 books). Aretaeus's works were first published in Latin translation by Junius Paulus Crassus (Giunio Paolo Grassi) along with Grassi's translation of Rufus of Ephesus, in 1552. Rufus's work is the earliest treatise on the anatomical nomenclature of the human body. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Aretaeus's Greek text was first published in Paris by classical scholar and printer Adrianus Turnebus (Adrien Turnèbe or Tournebeuf) in 1554.Though the editor of that edition is unidentified, the work has been attributed to Jacques Goupyl. In 1723 a major edition in folio was published at the Clarendon press at Oxford, edited by John Wigan, containing an improved text, a new Latin version, learned dissertations and notes, and a copious index by Michel Maittaire. In 1731, Herman Boerhaave brought out a new annotated edition, of which the text and Latin version had been printed before the appearance of Wigan's; this edition contained annotations by Pierre Petit and Daniel Wilhelm Triller, as well as all the notes in Wigan's edition. The edition by C. G. Kühn, Leipzig 1828, included Wigan's text, Latin version, dissertations, etc., together with Petit's commentary, Triller's emendations, and Maittaire's index.The more recent standard edition is by Karl Hude (1860–1936) in the Corpus medicorum graecorum (2nd ed., Berlin, Akademie-Verlag, 1958, online at this link.The four books, De causis et signis, were published in an annotated bilingual edition in Greek and French, Arétée de Cappadoce, Des causes et des signes des maladies aiguës et chroniques, trans. R.T.H. Laennec, ed. and comm. Mirko D. Grmek, pref. by Danielle Gourevitch, Geneva, 2000.

Contains (pp. 168-73) the first printed description of the lesser circulation. Because of the heretical nature of this book on the reform of Christianity, it was printed secretly and anonymously at Vienne, France. Copies had circulated in manuscript as early as 1546.

As a punishment for heresy, Servetus, a physician, was burnt at the stake at Champel, Geneva, by order of Calvin, soon after publication. Virtually the entire edition of 1000 copies was burned with him. Only three copies survive: Richard Mead’s copy in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, a copy in the Imperial Library, Vienna, and a copy lacking the title page and the first 16pp., said to be Calvin’s personal copy, at Edinburgh University Library.

Servetus's passage on the lesser circulation was first reprinted by William Wotton in Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (1694), pp. 211-12. Wotton provided the Latin text on pp. 230-31 of the second edition of Reflexions.... (1697), and in an added "Postscript" that prefixed the second edition he provided the first English translation on pp. xxvi-xxxii. Interestingly, Wotton printed Servetus's text from a transcription provided to him by Charles Bernard; neither Wotton nor Bernard were able to view a copy of the actual book from which it had been copied.

Servetus's complete work was reprinted in type facsimile in 1790 at Nuremberg. Servetus’s passages describing the pulmonary circulation are also translated in J. F. Fulton’s Selected readings in the history of physiology, 2nd ed., 1966, pp. 44-45. See Fulton & Stanton, Michael Servetus, humanist and martyr. With a bibliography of his works, New York: Reichner, 1953.

Digital facsimile of the 1694 edition of Wotton from the Internet Archive at this link. Digital facsimile of the 1697 edition of Wotton at this link. Digital facsimile of the 1790 facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Paracelsus suggested the hereditary transmission of syphilis and advocated mercury internally, as an antisyphilitic. He called the disease “French gonorrhoea” and thus started the confusion which lasted until the 19th century.

This treatise on tumors includes (p. 194) the first known description of an epidemic disease resembling scarlet fever. This was a malady prevalent in Italy, and was commonly called rossania or rossalia. Ingrassia was first to differentiate varicella (chicken pox) from scarlet fever (pp. 194-95). Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Considerably expanded from Belon's work of 1551. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

This is a collective work, incorporating the writings of more than 70 authorities, among whom may be mentioned Avicenna, Averroës, Avenzohar, Guainerio, Gesner, Savonarola, Petrus de Abano, and Maimonides. It gives an extensive history of balneology and an exact description of all the then known watering-places (about two hundred). Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first separate book on exercise by a physician. Facsimile with English translation by Francisco Guerra as Book of bodily exercise, edited by Frederick G. Kilgour (New Haven: E. Licht, 1960).

Belon was first trained as an apothecary, and worked in that capacity for the bishop of Clermont, Guillaume Duprat. Around 1542 he studied medicine In Paris, and obtained a licentiate in medicine, though he never took the formal degree of doctor. With the recommendation of Duprat, he became an apothecary to Cardinal François de Tournon. Under this patronage, he was able to undertake extensive scientific voyages and travels. Beginning in 1546, he travelled through Greece, Crete, Asia Minor, Egypt, Arabia and Palestine, and returned in 1549. He hoped to find the remains of Homer's Troy in the Levant. His Observations, an account of these travels, included numerous woodcut illustrations. Digital facsimile of the 1553 edition from the Internet Archive at this link. Translated into English by James Hogarth as Travels in the Levant: The observations of Pierre Belon of Le Mans on many singularities and memorable things found in Greece, Turkey, Judaea (2012).

One of the first treatises on conifers and other evergreen plants. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

First printed edition in Greek, edited by Jacques Goupyl. Rufus was a Greek physician who lived during the rule of Trajan. He wrote  wrote treatises on dietetics, pathology, anatomy, and patient care. His De partibus corporis humani is is the earliest treatise on the anatomical nomenclature of the human body. In his description of diseases of the kidneys he made a concerted effort to correlate structure and function, and to provide a rational explanation of the altered function of the kidneys in disease. The section of his monograph "On Hardening of the Kidneys" constitutes the first description of morbid and clinical features of the end-stage kidneys. In his day Rufus stood out among his contemporaries as a great surgeon. He is particularly remembered for his work on hemostasis; he also wrote a treatise on gout. Rufus is mentioned by Chaucer’s doctor.Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliiothek at this link.

Dodoens was the first Belgian botanist of international repute. Drawing on the illustrations of Fuchs, but preparing his own text, Dodoens improved on the alphabetical Fuchs organization scheme by grouping plants according to their properties and reciprocal affinities. With this work he provided a national herbarium of species indigenous to the Flemish provinces. English translation, London, 1578. Facsimile reprint Nieuwendijk, Forel, [1978].

The first systematic treatise on pathology, which also introduced the names for the sciences of pathology and physiology. In the second part, entitled “Pathologia”, Fernel provided the first systematic essay on the subject, methodically discussing the diseases of each organ. Fernel was the first to describe appendicitis, endocarditis, etc. He believed aneurysms to be produced by syphilis, and differentiated true from false aneurysms. He was physician to Henri II of France. The first section of the above work is the second edition of Fernel’s classic treatise on physiology (No. 572).

Epistle xxi, pp. 74-77, contains the first definite description of chlorosis. “De morbo virgineo”. English translation in No. 2241.

An improved version of Rösslin’s Swangern frawen. This contains the first true anatomical pictures in an obstetrics book. Rueff described smooth-edged forceps for delivery of a live baby, preceding Chamberlen, and a toothed forceps for extraction of the dead fetus. He developed a method of cephalic version combining internal and external manipulation. A Latin translation of his book, De conceptu et generatione hominis, was published by Froschauer in the same year. English translation, London, 1637.

The illustrations show contemporary ideas about mammalian embryology.

Rondelet wrote this book with the idea of verifying Aristotle, but in it he described many forms of fishes for the first time. The book is an accurate account of his investigation of Mediterranean fishes and marine animals, and Singer says that Fig. 51, illustrating the structure of a sea urchin, is the earliest figure we have of a dissected vertebrate. Rondelet also observed the relationship between embryo and mother in the placental dogfish. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Agostino Gadaldini’s Latin translation of Galen’s Ad Glauconem and of Stephanus’ commentary upon it, enhanced with his own scholia. The work was at the heart of the medical curriculum at Alexandria, and the sixth/seventh-century Alexandrian physician Stephanus naturally made it the subject of a commentary (his commentaries on the Prognostics and Aphorisms of Hippocrates also survive). Gadaldini of Modena produced this Latin edition from a Greek manuscript now in the Royal Library of Copenhagen. This was the first printed edition of any work by Stephanus of Athens.

Salviani taught at the University of Rome until 1568, after which he was chief physician to the House of Farnese and three successive popes, Pope Julius III, Pope Marcellus II and Pope Paul IV.

"Salviani’s work was published in parts over a period of three years. Its use of copper engraving was well-suited to depicting fish, and greatly superior to woodcuts with its lifelike rendition of eyes and scales. The copper engravings have a scientific appearance, but some details, like the correct number and position of the scales were omitted. Nicolas Béatrizet probably designed the title-page and the fish illustrations were made by Antoine Lafréry. Another theory is that they were drawn by the Italian painter Bernardus Aretinus and engraved by Nicolas Béatrizet. Salviani's Aquatilium animalium (1554-1558) only deals with animals personally observed and handled by him. He noted that cephalopods were distinct from fishes. He collected most of the fishes for his studies from the market in Rome" (Wikipedia article on Hippolito Salviani).

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

First edition in latin, translated by Mathisius of Bruges from a manuscript of the Greek text that probably originated in the library of the Emperor Andronicus II Palaiologos or that of the ex-Patriarch Joseph. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

First Latin translation of the Synopsis or Epitome of his compilations that Oribasius made for his son, Euthasius. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Containing Vesalius’s final published revisions of the text, this edition is also superior for its enlarged format, improved typography and printing, better paper, larger woodcut initials, and changes to the lettering of the anatomical woodcuts. Most of the original woodblocks from the second edition along with the anatomical captions were splendidly reprinted as Icones Anatomicae by the Bremer Press for the New York Academy of Medicine and the University of Munich, 1934. The woodblocks had been preserved in the University of Munich, but were destroyed in World War II.

A collection made by Gesner of various surgical works by ancient and recent authors including M. A. Blondus, A. Bolognini, G. Dondi, A. Ferri, Galen, C. Gesner, J.Langius, B. Maggi, Marianus Sanctus, Oribasius, and J. Tagault. The list of surgical writers and their works which Gesner appended to this book is one of the earliest bibliographies of surgery.

Belon’s book on birds is well illustrated, including plates of the skeletons of man and bird side by side and in the same posture, to compare them bone for bone. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

A vernacular guide for living a healthy life compiled from the writings of Fuchs. Includes herbal and dietary remedies, recipes for oils, pills and other preparations to treat maladies such as fever, plague and wounds.

Considered the most significant work on the pulse between Galen and Harvey. The work includes what is probably the earliest graphic representation of the pulse. Struthius provided a useful mnemonic of the five simple pulses in the form of a hand (on p. 116). Digital facsimile of the Venice,1573 edition from Google Books at this link.

Laguna' translation of Dioscorides into Spanish included commentaries and additions that double the original text. It included very beautiful botanical woodcuts of plants and animals, and is considered one of the best and most faithful renditions of Dioscorides' work into a modern language.

Contains Gesner's second work on mountaineering, his description of the Riven Mountain, commonly called Mount Pilatus, Eivsdem descriptio Montis Fracti, siue Montis Pilati, iuxta Lucernam in Helvetia. Digital facsimile from bibdigital.rjb.csic.es at this link.
English translation by H.B.D. Soulé, San Francisco: The Grabhorn Press, 1937.

Historia de la composicion del cuerpo humano Spanish physician Juan Valverde de Amusco was issued in Rome at the press of Antonio Salamanca. This was the first great original medical book in Spanish and the most original of the various "plagiarisms" from Vesalius's Fabrica, although Valverde freely acknowledged that he took his illustrations from Vesalius, providing only four entirely new plates in his series of 42 copperplate engravings copied from the Vesalian woodcuts. Valverde also sometimes corrected Vesalius' images, as in his depictions of the muscles of the eyes, nose, and larynx. 

For further details see the entry at HistoryofInformation.com at this link.

Contains (Cent. iii, curat. 70, p. 286) first recorded case of purpura as a separate entity, not associated with fever. English translation of this section in Major, Classic descriptions of disease, 3rd. ed., 1945, p. 514.

Clifford Allbutt considered Franco the best lithotomist of the 16th century. His skill in extracting the stone by the perineal route was of a high order; in 1556 he introduced the operation of suprapubic cystotomy in operating for stone, which is recorded in the above. Franco also provided the first description of an operation for strangulated hernia. Franco, in 1556, was the first to perform suprapubic cystotomy. Poor, and largely self-taught, he greatly improved the technique of herniotomy.

First edition in print, edited by Conrad Gessner, of Aelianus's collected works, including On the nature of animals (On the characteristics of animals). Aelianus was a Roman author and teacher of rhetoric who flourished under Septimius Severus. Aelian's anecdotes on animals rarely depended on direct observation: they were almost entirely taken from written sources, often from Pliny, but also other authors and works now lost, for whom he is a valuable witness. Aelianus was more attentive to marine life than might be expected, and this seems to reflect personal interest; he often quotes "fishermen". At times he strikes the reader as credulous, but at others he specifically states that he is reporting what was told by others, and that he does not believe them. Aelian's work was one of the sources of medieval natural history, including medieval beastiaries 

In the 1556 edition Gessner combined the text of Claudius Aelianus with his edition of Aelianus Tacticus On military arrangements of the Greeks even though the authors and subject matters were very different. Digital facsimile of the 1556 edition from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link. English translation by A. F. Scholfield in the Loeb Classical Library (3 vols., 1958-59). Digital facsimile of the 1958-59 translation from the Internet Archive at this link.

 Editio principes (first printed edition in Greek) of the anatomical portions (Books 24 and 25) of Oribasius's Synagoge, or Encyclopaedia of Medicine. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Agricola, a physician, wrote several pioneering works on physical geology, systematic minerology, and mining technology. The twelve books of his masterwork, De re metallica (On Metals), illustrated with over 270 woodcuts, embraced everything connected with Renaissance mining and metallurgical industries, including administration, the duties of companies and workers, prospecting, mechanical engineering, ore processing and the manufacture of glass, sulfur and alum. Book VI provided detailed descriptions of sixteenth-century mining technologies, such as the use of water-power for crushing ore and the improvements in suction pumps and ventilation that became necessary as mine shafts were sunk deeper underground; it also includes an account of the diseases and accidents prevalent among miners, along with the means of preventing them. He described the primitive methods of ventilation and personal protection in use, common mining accidents and disasters, and “difficulty in breathing and destruction of the lungs” caused by the harmful effects of dust inhalation. English translation in semi-facsimile format by mining engineer and later U.S. President Herbert Hoover and geologist and Latinist Lou Henry Hoover, London: The Mining Magazine, 1912. Digital facsimile of the English translation from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

This encyclopedic chronology of portentious events in human history includes many monstrous births, both human and animal. Actual cases are uncritically mingled with mythical creatures. German translation, 1557. English translaion: The doome warning all men to the iudgemente: wherein are contayned for the most parte all the straunge prodigies hapned in the worlde, with diuers secrete figures of reuelations tending to mannes stayed conuersion towardes God: in maner of a generall chronicle, gathered out of sundrie approued authors by St. Batman professor in diuinite. (London, 1581).

The first Spanish book on dentistry. 

The first pocket reference for travelers by land or sea, dealing with topics such as infected genitalia, frostbite, fouled drinking water, shipboard stench, the best boots and shoes. The recipes in this work comprised an essential medical kit for soldiers, sailors, merchants, diplomats and pilgrims. Includes an early description of snow blindness and a recommended treatment. It was issued three times in 1557.  

Garrison considered this “the best treatise on personal hygiene and the simple life in existence”. Cornaro was called the Apostle of Senescence. 

"When he was about 40, Cornaro found himself exhausted and in poor health, a condition he attributed to a hedonistic lifestyle with excessive eating, drinking, and sexual licentiousness. On the advice of doctors, he began to adhere to a calorie restriction diet specially for morbid obese/anorexia nervosa persons,^[3] centered on the "quantifying principle" of restricting himself to only 350g of food daily (including bread, egg yolk, meat, and soup) and 414 mL of wine.^[4] His book Discorsi della vita sobria (Discourses On the Temperate Life), which described his regimen, was extremely successful, and "was a true reconceptualization of old age. As late as the Renaissance it was largely the negative aspects of this phase of life which were emphasized ... Cornaro’s method offered the possibility for the first time not only of a long but also a worthwhile life." After his conversion to a holistic lifestyle, he remained in vigorous health well into old age.^[4]

In 1550, when Cornaro was about 83, he was urged to write down his secrets of health, and its English translation, often referred to today under the title The Sure and Certain Method of Attaining a Long and Healthful Life, went through numerous editions; he wrote three follow-ups in 1553, 1558, and 1562. The first three were published at Padua in 1558. They are written, says Joseph Addison, in the early 18th century periodical The Spectator (No. 195), "with such a spirit of cheerfulness, religion and good sense, as are the natural concomitants of temperance and sobriety." Friedrich Nietzsche criticized the work for mistaking the consequence with the cause,^[5] insisting that Cornaro's diet is not the cause of his long life, but rather that the cause of his long life - which Nietzsche gives as his slow metabolism - is the reason for his diet." (Wikipedia article on Luigi Cornaro, accessed 3-2020).

First translated into English by George Herbert as A treatise of temperance and sobrietie, n.p., n.d. [1634]. This was published with Leonardus Lessius, Hygiasticon: Or, The right course of preserving life and health unto extream old age together with soundnesse and integritie of the senses, judgement, and memorie. Written in Latine by Leonardus Lessius, and now done into English. [Cambridge]: Printed by Roger Daniel, printer to the Universitie of Cambridge, 1634. Digital text is available from Early English Books Online at this link. 

The first work on agriculture written in French. As an apothecary, Belon was especially interested in the pharmaceutical value of plants. Having learned about them on his travels, he introduced numerous foreign plants into France, including the tree of Judea, cork oak, pistachio, cedar, jujube, and green oak, eastern juniper, and myrtle. Except for a portrait of Belon, this relatively brief work is unillustrated. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Colombo was a pupil of Vesalius, and succeeded him in the chair of anatomy at Padua before proceeding to chairs first at Pisa and later at Rome. His book, published just after his death, rectified a number of anatomical errors. He described the pulmonary circulation, but may possibly have read the account of Servetus published six years previously. He gave a clear description of the mode of action of the pulmonary, cardiac, and aortic valves. The only illustration in this work is the fine woodcut title page influenced by the title page of Vesalius's Fabrica , and suggesting the relief by Donatello entitled The Heart of the Miser. Colombo met Michelangelo in 1547 and supposedly he attempted to commission Michelangelo to illustrate this book. Unfortunately that project never transpired. English translation of the section on pulmonary circulation in John Banister, The historie of man sucked from the sappe of the most approved anathomistes.… London, John Daye, 1578. English translation of book XV by R.J. Moes and C.D. O’Malley, Realdo Colombo. “On those things rarely found in anatomy”, Bull. Hist. Med., 1960, 34, 508-28. Digital facsimile of the 1559 edition from Google Books at this link.

Michael of Ephesus, who completed his commentaries in or after 1138, was one of the principal Aristotelian scholars in a group organized in Constantinople by the Empress Anna Komnena. His commentary was translated into Latin by Domenico Montesauro, a physician of Verona. In the present edition Michael's work is followed (pp. 201-325) by a version in Latin of book I of the original Aristotle, with facing commentary, by the Padua philosophy professor Niccolo Leonico Tomeo (1456-1531). Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.