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 1550–1559

52 entries
  • 6142

Ordnung eines erbarn Raths der Statt Regenspurg, die Hebammen betreffende.

Regensburg: H. Kohl, 1550.

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



Subjects: LAW and Medicine & the Life Sciences › Legislation, Biomedical, OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY › OBSTETRICS
  • 378.01

Libro de la anathomia del hombre.

Valladolid: Sebastian Martinez, 1551.

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.



Subjects: ANATOMY › 16th Century, ANATOMY › Anatomical Illustration, COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Spain
  • 1811

A new herball. 3 vols.

London: S. Mierdman & Cologne: A. Birckman, 15511568.

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.



Subjects: BOTANY › Botanical Illustration, PHARMACOLOGY › PHARMACEUTICALS › Materia medica / Herbals / Herbal Medicines
  • 4159

Methodus cognoscendi, extirpandique excrescentes in vesicae collo carunculas.

[Rome]: Valerio y Luis Doricos, 1551.

 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.



Subjects: UROLOGY
  • 278

L'histoire naturelle des estranges poissons marins, avec la vraie peincture & description du daulphin, & de plusieurs autres de son espece.

Paris: Regnaud Chaudière, 1551.

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.



Subjects: COMPARATIVE ANATOMY, NATURAL HISTORY › Illustration, ZOOLOGY › Ichthyology, ZOOLOGY › Illustration
  • 280

Historia animalium. 5 vols.

Zürich: apud C. Froschouerum, 15511587.

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 AristotlePliny 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).



Subjects: BIOLOGY › Marine Biology, VETERINARY MEDICINE, ZOOLOGY, ZOOLOGY › Illustration
  • 12945

Curationum medicinalium centuria prima, multiplici variaque rerum cognitione referta. Praexfixa est eiusdem auctoris commentatio, in qua docetur, quomodo se medicus habere debeat in introitu ad aegrotantem, simulque de crisi, & diebus decretoriis, in qui artem medicam exercent, & quotidie pro salute aegrotorum in collegium descendunt longe utilissima.

Venice: Laurentius Torrentinus, 1551.

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.



Subjects: ANATOMY › 16th Century, CARDIOLOGY › CARDIOVASCULAR PHYSIOLOGY › Anatomy of the Heart & Circulatory System, Jews and Medicine
  • 2139.1

De vulnerum sclopetorum et bombardarum curatione tractatus.

Bologna: per B. Bonardum, 1552.

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.



Subjects: MILITARY MEDICINE, SURGERY & HYGIENE › Renaissance, SURGERY: General › Wound Healing
  • 2368

La méthode curatoire de la maladie venerienne.

Paris: M. David, 1552.

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



Subjects: INFECTIOUS DISEASE › SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES › Syphilis
  • 5522

A boke, or conseill against the disease commonly called the sweate, or sweatyng sicknesse.

London: Richard Grafton, 1552.

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.



Subjects: EPIDEMIOLOGY, INFECTIOUS DISEASE › Sweating Sickness
  • 281

De differentiis animalium.

Paris: Vascosanus, 1552.

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.



Subjects: ZOOLOGY
  • 6976

Libri septem, nunc primum e tenebris eruti a Junio Paulo Crasso Patavino accuratissime in Latinum sermonem versi. Ruffi Ephesii medici clarissimi, De corporis humani partium appelationibus libri tres.

Venice: apud Iuntas, 1552.

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.

 



Subjects: ANCIENT MEDICINE › Greece, ANCIENT MEDICINE › Roman Empire
  • 7807

Meletius, De natura structuraque hominis opus. Polemonis Atheniensis, Naturae signorum interpretationis. Hippocratis, De hominis structura. Diocles, De tuenda valetudine epistola. Melampus, De nevis corporis tractatus. Omnia haec non prius edita. Nicolao Petreio Corcyraeo interprete.

Venice: Ex officina Gryphii, sumptibus vero Francisci Camotti, 1552.

This collection of Late Antique and Byzantine medicine edited by Nicolas Petreius begins with a Byzantine treatise on anatomy, probably written in the eighth century by Meletius, a Christian monk and physician from Phyrgia (now part of Turkey).

See R. Renehan, “Meletius’ chapter on the eyes: an unidentifed source”, in Symposium on Byzantine Medicine, Washington, D.C. 1984; J. Lascaratos & M. Tsiro, "Ophthalmological ideas of the Byzantine author Meletius," Documenta ophthalmologica, 74 (1990) 31-35.

For Meletius' contributions to cardiology see G. Tsoucalas, T. Mariolis-Sapsakos, and M. Sgantzos, "Meletius the Monk (c. 8th to 9th century AD) and the Blood Circulation" European Heart Journal, 38 ( 2017) 624– 626. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: BYZANTINE MEDICINE, CARDIOLOGY, OPHTHALMOLOGY
  • 754

Christianismi restitutio.

Vienne, France: Balthasar Amoullet, 1553.

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.



Subjects: CARDIOLOGY › CARDIOVASCULAR PHYSIOLOGY, CARDIOLOGY › CARDIOVASCULAR PHYSIOLOGY › Cardiovascular System
  • 2369

Von der frantzösischen kranckheit drey Bücher.

Frankfurt: H. Gülfferichen, 1553.

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.



Subjects: GENETICS / HEREDITY › HEREDITARY / CONGENITAL DISEASES OR DISORDERS › Congenital Syphilis, INFECTIOUS DISEASE › SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES › Syphilis
  • 5073
  • 5437

De tumoribus praeter naturam.

Naples: Octavio Idusmadi, 1553.

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.



Subjects: INFECTIOUS DISEASE › Chickenpox, INFECTIOUS DISEASE › Scarlet Fever, ONCOLOGY & CANCER
  • 279

De aquatilibus, libri duo cum [epsilon] [iota] conibus ad viuam ipsorum effigiem, quoad eius fieri potuit, expressis.

Paris: Carolus Stephanus, 1553.

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



Subjects: NATURAL HISTORY › Illustration, ZOOLOGY › Ichthyology, ZOOLOGY › Illustration
  • 1986
DE BALNEIS

De balneis omnia quae extant apud Graecos, Latinos, et Arabas.

Venice: apud Iuntas, 1553.

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.



Subjects: THERAPEUTICS › Balneotherapy
  • 4478.99

Libro de exercicio corporal y de sus provechos, por el qual cada uno podra entender que exercicio le sea necessario para conservar su salud.

Seville: Gregorio de la Torre, 1553.

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).

 

 



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Spain, PHYSICAL MEDICINE / REHABILITATION › Exercise / Training / Fitness
  • 8982

Les observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables, trouuées en Grece, Asie, Iudée, Egypte, Arabie, & autres pays estranges, redigées en trois livres.

Paris: Gilles Corrozet, 1553.

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).



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Greece , COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Israel, COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Middle East, NATURAL HISTORY › Illustration, VOYAGES & Travels by Physicians, Surgeons & Scientists
  • 8983

De arboribus coniferis, resiniferis, aliis quoque nonnullis sempiterna fronde virentibus, cum earundem iconibus ad viuum expressis. Item de melle cedrino, cedria, agarico, resinis, & iis quae ex coniferis proficiscuntur.

Paris: apud benedictum Prevost, 1553.

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



Subjects: BOTANY, BOTANY › Botanical Illustration, BOTANY › Dendrology
  • 23

De vesicae renumque morbis. De purgantibus medicamentis. De partibus corporis humani...

Paris: Andreas Turnebus, 1554.

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.



Subjects: ANATOMY › Ancient Anatomy (BCE to 5th Century CE), ANCIENT MEDICINE › Greece, ANCIENT MEDICINE › Roman Empire, HEMATOLOGY › Hemostasis, NEPHROLOGY, SURGERY: General
  • 1812

Cruÿdeboeck.

Antwerp: Jan ver der Loe, 1554.

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].



Subjects: BOTANY › Botanical Illustration, BOTANY › Classification / Systemization of Plants, COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Belgium, PHARMACOLOGY › PHARMACEUTICALS › Materia medica / Herbals / Herbal Medicines
  • 2271

Medicina. 3 pts.

Paris: apud A. Wechelum, 1554.

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).



Subjects: CARDIOLOGY › CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE › Aneurysms, INFECTIOUS DISEASE › Endocarditis, INFECTIOUS DISEASE › SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES › Syphilis, PATHOLOGY, PHYSIOLOGY, SURGERY: General › Appendicitis
  • 3109

Medicinalium epistolarum miscellanea.

Basel: Johannes Oporinus, 1554.

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



Subjects: HEMATOLOGY › Anemia & Chlorosis
  • 463
  • 6141

Ein schön lustig Trostbüchle von den Empfengknussen und Geburten der Menschen…

Zürich: apud Frosch[overum], 1554.

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.



Subjects: ANATOMY › Anatomical Illustration, INSTRUMENTS & TECHNOLOGIES › Medical Instruments › Forceps, OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY › OBSTETRICS, OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY › OBSTETRICS › Midwives
  • 282

Libri de piscibus marinis, in quibus verae piscium effigies expressae sunt. (Universae aquatilium pars altera.) 2 vols.

Lyon: apud Matthiam Bonhomme, 15541555.

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.



Subjects: COMPARATIVE ANATOMY, ZOOLOGY › Ichthyology, ZOOLOGY › Illustration
  • 12787

Stephani Atheniensis philosophi explanationes in Galeni priorem librum therapeuticum ad Glauconem, Augustino Gadaldino Mutiensi interprete.

Venice: apud Juntas, 1554.

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.



Subjects: ANCIENT MEDICINE › Roman Empire, BYZANTINE MEDICINE
  • 13119

Aquatilium animalium historiae. Liber primus cum eorumdem formis aere excusis.

Rome, 1554.

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 IIIPope 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.



Subjects: NATURAL HISTORY, NATURAL HISTORY › Illustration, ZOOLOGY › Ichthyology
  • 13202

Methodi medendi libri sex, quibus omnia, quae ad medicinam factitandam pertinent, fere complectitur.

Venice: Gualterio Scoto, 1554.

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.



Subjects: BYZANTINE MEDICINE
  • 13269

Oribasii Sardiani Synopseos ad Eustathium filium libri novem: Quibus tota medicina in compendium redacta continetur Ioanne Baptista Rasario Novariensi medico interprete.

Venice: Paulus Manutius, 1554.

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.



Subjects: BYZANTINE MEDICINE
  • 377

De humani corporis fabrica libri septem.

Basel: Johannes Oporinus, 1555.

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 on specially watermarked handmade paper 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.

Vesalius issued an Epitome of the 1555 second edition, of which only two copies have survived.



Subjects: ANATOMY › 16th Century, ANATOMY › Anatomical Illustration, ART & Medicine & Biology
  • 5562

De chirurgia scriptores optimi quique veteres et recentiores, plerique in Germania antehac non editi.

Zürich: apud A. et J. Gesnerum, 1555.

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.



Subjects: BIBLIOGRAPHY › Bibliographical Classics, SURGERY: General
  • 283

L'histoire de la nature des oyseaux, avec leurs descriptions, et naïfs portraicts retirez du naturel escrite en sept livres.

Paris: B. Prevost & G. Cauellat, 1555.

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.



Subjects: COMPARATIVE ANATOMY, NATURAL HISTORY › Illustration, ZOOLOGY › Ornithology
  • 9773

Le benefice commun de tout le monde, ou commodité de vie d’vn chascun, pour la conseruation de santé: Remedes segretz tirées des plantes contre toutes maladies. 3 vols.

Rouen: Pour Robert du Gort au portail des Libraires, 15551556.

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.



Subjects: Household or Self-Help Medicine, Hygiene, NUTRITION / DIET, PHARMACOLOGY › PHARMACEUTICALS › Materia medica / Herbals / Herbal Medicines, Renaissance Medicine
  • 10601

Sphygmicae artis iam mille ducentos annos perditae et desideratae libri V.

Basel: Johannes Oporinus, 1555.

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.



Subjects: CARDIOLOGY
  • 13125

Acerca de la materia medicinal, y de los venenos mortiferos, traduzido de lengua griege, en la vulgar castellana, & illustrado con claras y substantiales annotationes, y con las figuras de innumeras plantas exquisitas y raras, por el Doctor Andres de Laguna....

Antwerp: En casa de Juan Latio, 1555.

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.



Subjects: BOTANY › Medical Botany, PHARMACOLOGY › PHARMACEUTICALS › Materia medica / Herbals / Herbal Medicines
  • 13141

De raris et admirandis herbis, qvae sive qvod noctv luceant, siue alias ob causas, Lvnariae nominantur, Commentariolus : & obiter de alijs etiam rebus quae in tenebris lucent. Inseruntur & Icones quaedam herbarum nouae. Eivsdem descriptio Montis Fracti, siue Montis Pilati, iuxta Lucernam in Helvetia. His accedunt Io. Dv Chovl G. F. Lugdunensis, Pilati Montis in Gallia Descriptio. Io. Rhellicani Stockhornias, qua Stockhornus mons altissimus in Bernensium Helvetiorum agro, versibus Heroicis describitur.

Zurich: Apud Andream Gesnerum F. & Iacobvm Gesnerum, fratres , 1555.

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.



Subjects: BOTANY, PHYSICAL MEDICINE / REHABILITATION › Exercise / Training / Fitness
  • 378.02

Historia de la composicion del cuerpo humano…

Rome: Antonio Salamanca, 1556.

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.



Subjects: ANATOMY › 16th Century, ANATOMY › Anatomical Illustration, ART & Medicine & Biology, COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Spain
  • 3049

Curationum medicinalium centuriae quatuor.

Basel: H. Frobenius, 1556.

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.



Subjects: HEMATOLOGY › Blood Disorders, Jews and Medicine
  • 3573
  • 4279

Petit traité contenant une des parties principalles de chirurgie, laquelle les chirurgiens hernieres exercent.

Lyon: Antoine Vincent, 1556.

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.



Subjects: SURGERY: General › Hernia, UROLOGY › Urinary Calculi
  • 7087

Claudii Aeliani... opera, quae extant omnia: Graece Latineque e regione, uti versa hac pagina commemorantur... Conradi Gesneri.

Zurich: Gesneros fratres, 1556.

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.



Subjects: NATURAL HISTORY › Late Antiquity, ZOOLOGY, ZOOLOGY › Ichthyology, Zoology, Natural History, Ancient Greek / Roman / Egyptian
  • 12775

Ta ton Oribasios iatrikon snyagogon ek tou galenou anatomika. Collectaneorum artis medicae liber, quo totius corporis humani sectio explicatur, ex Galeni commentariis.

Paris: Guil. Morel, in Graecis typographum Regium, 1556.

 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.



Subjects: ANCIENT MEDICINE › Greece, ANCIENT MEDICINE › Late Antiquity
  • 13252

De re metallica.

Basel: Hieronymus Episcopus, 1556.

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.



Subjects: OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & MEDICINE › Miners' Diseases
  • 534.5

Prodigiorum ac ostentorum chronicon.

Basel: Heinrich Petri, 1557.

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).



Subjects: TERATOLOGY
  • 3668.2

Coloquio breve y compendioso. Sobre la materia de la dentadura, y maravillosa obra de la boca, contiene muchos remedios y avisos necesarios y la orden de curar y aderezar los dientes.

Valladolid: Sebastian Martinez, 1557.

The first Spanish book on dentistry. 



Subjects: DENTISTRY
  • 10726

Raiss Büchlein…mit güten Mitteln der Artzney Begegnen Soll.

Strassburg, Austria: H. Knobloch, 1557.

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.  



Subjects: MILITARY MEDICINE, SURGERY & HYGIENE › Navy, VOYAGES & Travels by Physicians, Surgeons & Scientists
  • 13203

Περὶ ἐνεργειῶν καὶ παθῶν τοῦ ψυχικοὺ πνεύματος καὶ τῆς κατ' αὐτὸ διαίτης. Actuarii de actionibus & affectibus spritus animalis, eusque victu, Libri II. Nunc primum in lucem prodeunt, Jac. Goupyli beneficio, qui nobis eorum exemplum dedit.

Paris: Aud Martinum Iuuenem, 1557.
Editio princeps of this physiological and physiological work in two books. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. A Latin translation by Julius Alexandrinus was published in 1547.


Subjects: BYZANTINE MEDICINE, PHYSIOLOGY, PSYCHOLOGY
  • 1592

Trattato de la vita sobria.

Padua: G. Perchacino, 1558.

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



Subjects: GERIATRICS / Gerontology / Aging, Hygiene, NUTRITION / DIET, Obesity Research
  • 8984

Les remonstrances sur le default du labour et culture des plantes, et de la cognoissance d'icelles, contenant la maniere d'affranchir et appriuoiser les arbres sauuages.

Paris: Gilles Corrozet, 1558.

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 Judeacork oakpistachiocedarjujube, and green oakeastern juniper, and myrtle. Except for a portrait of Belon, this relatively brief work is unillustrated. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: Agriculture / Horticulture, BOTANY, BOTANY › Dendrology, BOTANY › Medical Botany
  • 378.1

De re anatomica libri xv.

Venice: ex typ. Nicolai Bevilacquae, 1559.

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.



Subjects: ANATOMY › 16th Century, ANATOMY › Anatomical Illustration, ART & Medicine & Biology, CARDIOLOGY › CARDIOVASCULAR PHYSIOLOGY
  • 7240

Michaelis Ephesii scholia, idest, brevis sed erudita atque utilis interpretatio in IIII. libros Aristotelis De Partibus Animalium. Dominico Monthesauro Veronensi interprete. Nunc primmùm [sic.] in lucem edita.

Basel: Petrus Perna, 1559.

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.



Subjects: Byzantine Zoology