An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2024 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

16061 entries, 14144 authors and 1947 subjects. Updated: November 17, 2024

Browse by Publication Year 1460–1469

4 entries
  • 6819

Cerrahiyyetu'l-Haniyye (Imperial Surgery)

Istanbul (Constantinople), 1465.

In 1465, at the age of 80, Ottoman surgeon and physician Şerafeddin Sabuncuoğlu published in manuscript an illustrated atlas of surgery and dentistry. This was also the first medical textbook written in Turkish, probably the first atlas of pediatric surgery, and the first surgical atlas to show women surgeons. The atlas covers 191 topics in three chapters.

Three copies survived, all different, and all incomplete. One is preserved in Istanbul’s Fatih Millet Library, another at the Capa Medical History Department of Istanbul University, and a third in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. 



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Turkey, DENTISTRY, Illustration, Biomedical, MEDIEVAL MEDICINE › Turkey, Pediatric Surgery, SURGERY: General , WOMEN in Medicine & the Life Sciences, Publications About
  • 2190

De sermonum proprietate sive Opus de universo.

Strassburg, Austria: Adolf Rusch, 1467.

Also known as De rerum naturis. This dictionary or encyclopedia is the earliest known printed book to include a section dealing with medicine, and this brief section, Book 18, Chap. V concerning medicine and diseases, and other sections in the work on animals, plants, and minerals may be the first, or among the very first, printed texts on scientific subjects. Maurus's compilation may be considered either a dictionary or encyclopedia; it was the first of all printed encyclopedias. The book was printed by Rusch, the “R” printer. Authorities have dated the book before July 20, 1467 because  the first roman type used was thought to be the earliest Roman type ever cast. For an interesting paper on the book, including a translation of the chapter dealing with medicine, see E. C. Jessup, Ann. med. Hist., 1934, n.s., 6, 35-41. More recently it has been suggested that the book might have been printed between 1473 and 1475. ISTC No. ir00001000. For more details see the entry at HistoryofInformation.com at this link. Translated into English by Patricia Throop as Hrabanus Maurus, De universo: The Peculiar properties of words and their mystical significance, 2 vols. (Charlotte VT, 2009).



Subjects: BOTANY, Dictionaries, Biomedical › Lexicography, Biomedical, Encyclopedias, MEDIEVAL MEDICINE , MEDIEVAL MEDICINE › Germany, Medicine: General Works, Medieval Zoology
  • 89

Historia naturalis, libri XXXVII.

Venice: Johannes de Spira , 1469.

The most ancient Western encyclopedia extant, Pliny’s Historia contained essentially all that was known in his time concerning geography, mineralogy, anthropology, botany, zoology and meteorology. Books XX-XXXII deal with medicine. Because of its practical value, Historia naturalis was one work of classical antiquity which, despite the sometimes unreliable nature of its material, was frequently copied, and read steadily throughout the Middle Ages. Pliny's botanical errors were not corrected until 1492 (Leoniceno, see No. 1798).

Pliny’s work was one of the very first scientific texts to be printed. The first English translation by Philemon Holland appeared in 1601. The modern English translation of the Natural History with parallel Latin text is that of W.H.S. Jones, H. Rackham, and D.E. Eichholz in the Loeb Classical Library, 10 vols., Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1948-63. The 1469 edition is ISTC No. ip00786000; Digital facsimile from Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève, Paris, at the Internet Archive, at this link.



Subjects: ANCIENT MEDICINE › Roman Empire, ANTHROPOLOGY, BOTANY, Encyclopedias, NATURAL HISTORY, ZOOLOGY, Zoology, Natural History, Ancient Greek / Roman / Egyptian
  • 9635

De officiis. Add: Paradoxa Stoicorum; Laelius, sive de amicitia; Cato maior, sive de senectute.

Rome: Conradus Sweynheym and Arnoldus Pannartz, 1469.

Of the 71 editions of Cicero's classical work on aging and death printed in the 15th century, Cato major de senectute, the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue cites 71, indicating the extreme popularity of Cicero's works in the early years of printing. This is the earliest edition with a definite date, and this and two other editions that might have been printed slightly before 1469 represent some of the very first works with a medical aspect that were printed. ISTC ic00579500. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.



Subjects: ANCIENT MEDICINE › Roman Empire, GERIATRICS / Gerontology / Aging