AVICENNE De Balneis, omnia quae extant apud Graecos, Latinos, et Arabas, tam medicos quam quoscumque ceterarum artium probatos scriptores…

Garrison-Morton, 1986 (“it gives an extensive history of balneology and an exact description of all the then known watering-places”); NLM, 1101; Norman, 113; Wellcome I, 652.

First edition.

This florilegium unites works of more than 70 authors including Avicenna, Avenzohar, Gesner, Savonarole, Petrus de Abano, Maimonides, Agricola, Hippocrates, Galen, and more.

“It gives an extensive history of balneology and an exact description of all the then known watering-places (about two hundred)” (Garrison-Morton).

The book is illustrated with a variety of woodcuts including a sight of the spa in the French town Plombière in the area of the Vosges, as well as a map of the Adriatic sea. The chapters start with a large historiated woodcut initial. The final quire ‘3q’ with numbered leaves 489-497 contains the supplement by Antonius Siccu.

“The most complete collection of early writings on balneology, incorporating writings and extracts from over seventy classical, Arabic and modern authorities including Aristotle, ibn Sina, Celsus, Gesner, Galen, Hippocrates, Agricola, Petrus de Albano, Massa, Pliny, Savonarola and Vitruvius. Signature 3q, containing Johannes Antonius Siccu’s De balneis compendium ex Hippocrate et Galeno appears to have been added as an extra sheet while the book was in press” (Norman).

Good copy, complete with the last quire not present in many copies. Some occasional old marginalia, title with restored tears (no loss), small wormhole in upper white margin.