GUILLEMEAU Jacques Les Œuvres de chirurgie.

Wellcome, 3001; Weinberger, p.180; Adams, G-1563 ; see Garrison-Morton, 5818 (for Traité des maladies de l’œil). See Parkinson, 1102 (incomplete copy of the 1649 edition). Not in Mortimer, Brun, Waller, Durling, David, Poletti etc…

First edition, very rare, of Jacques Guillemeau’s Works on Surgery.

Jacques Guillemeau was a pupil and son-in-law of Ambroise Paré. After Paré’s death, he became private physician to Charles IX, Henri III and then Henri IV. His works are particularly important for his work in dentistry, ophthalmology and obstetrics.

This handsome volume is illustrated with a total of 32 full-page copper-engraved anatomical engravings. In addition, between pages 135 and 155, there is a chapter entitled ‘Le Magazin ou recueil des Instruments de chirurgie’, which describes all the surgical instruments used at the time. This section is illustrated with 11 copper-engraved plates representing these instruments. At the end, it contains the important Traité des maladies de l’œil.

‘[Traité des maladies de l’œil is] the first French work on ophthalmology. Guillemeau was a pupil and son-in-law of Ambroise Paré; his book was an epitome of the existing knowledge on the subject, chiefly from Greek and Arabian sources’ (Garrison-Morton).

Some foxing, some old tears repaired, some restorations to upper part of the folding table slightly touching the decorative typographjcal border.

Copy complete with the engraved title page (folio R4) for La Chirurgie françoise also dated 1598 and with the extremely rare folding table ‘Sommaire et description méthodique de la Chirurgie de Iacques Guillemeau, chirurgien du Roy’, which is lacking in all the copies cited in the bibliographies.