Ten mediaeval works on health, medicine, food and wine in a rare, early edition, including notes by Ibn Sina

Ibn Sina (Avicenna) / Maynus de Maynis / Arnaldus de Villanova / [Roger Bacon] et al. Regimen sanitatis Magnini Mediolanensis [...] Insuper opusculu[m] De flebothomia editum [...] Reginaldo de Villa Nova. Additur quoq[ue] Astronomia Hippocratis [...] de variis egritudinibus et morbis. Item Secreta Hippogratis. Item Averrois De venenis. Ite[m] Quid pro quo apothecariorum [...] Nicolaum [...] Cum no[n]nullis insuper Avicenne [...].

(Lyon, Jacques Myt for) Barthélemy Trot (device), 6. II. 1517.

4to. CI, (3) ff. Title-page printed in red and black with Trot's woodcut publisher's device (lion holding arms bearing a globus cruciger with a parochial cross and initials BT). 12 decorated woodcut initials (white-on-black Lombardic capitals with leaf and flower decorations, 3 series) plus 3 repeats. Set in rotunda gothic types (2 sizes) with 3-line "Lombardic" capitals (and a couple 2-line), and 2 spaces with guide letters left to be filled in by hand. 17th-century calf sewn on 5 double supports, gold-tooled spine with titles in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of 6 compartments and a fleur-de-lis in each of the others, blind fillets on sides. Rebacked with the original backstrip laid down.

 25,000.00

Rare fourth (?) edition of a collection of ten medieval works by seven authors concerning medicine, health, food and wine, several first published in this collection in 1500. They include: Maynus de Maynis (ca. 1295-1368?), Regimen Sanitatis, on health (ff. III-LXIX); a work on phlebotomy attributed to Arnaldus de Villanova (ca. 1295-1368?) (ff. LXIX-LXXII); Astronomia, on astrological influences on health, attributed to Hippocrates (ff. LXXII-LXXIV); Johannes de Zantvliete (fl. 1343-50), De dieta, on food (ff. LXXIV-LXXV); Nicolaus Salernitanus (12th c.), Quid pro quo, a list of medicines for numerous ailments (ff. LXXV-LXXVII); Averroes (1126-1311) on poisons (ff. LXXVII-LXXVIII) and on theriac, a poisonous concoction used as an antidote to other poisons, especially poisoned wounds (ff. LXXVIII-LXXXIV); Secreta, a short piece attributed to Hippocrates (f. LXXXIV); Villanova, Tractatus de vinis, an extensive and important work on wine (LXXXIV-XCI); and Roger Bacon (ca. 1220-92), De regimine senum et seniorum, a treatise on geriatrics, here erroneously attributed to Villanova (ff. XCI-CI). Some incorporate notes taken from the works of Ibn Sina (Avicenna). The book ends with an index and table of contents. This collection was first printed at Paris in 1500, some of the works appearing there for the first time, and was reprinted in Lyon editions of ca. 1501 (anonymous, known from a unique copy) and ca. 1502 (by François Fradin). A few of the pieces had been published earlier: Salernitanus (Pavia 1478/79), De Maynis (Louvain 1482), both Averroes works together with the Secreta, (Bologna ca. 1497/1500).

Occasional underlining and marginal marks by an early hand. Leaves 4 and 5 (originally conjugate) now present as singleton leaves mounted on stubs (though we see no other indication that they are sophisticated): otherwise in very good condition, with only very slight browning. Rebacked as noted, and with the surface of the leather refurbished, but now structurally sound. One of the rare earliest editions of several medieval treatises on health, medicine, food and wine.

References

Baudrier VIII, 431. Durling 3044. Gültlingen, Bibl. Lyon II, 127: 47. Simon, Bacchica 421. USTC 144805 (8 copies). Vicaire 549f. Cf. Johnston, Cleveland herbal colls. 24 (ca. 1502 Lyon ed.); Wellcome 13965 (ca. 1502 Lyon ed.).