MESUE Abu Zacharia Yuhanna ibn Masawayh Mesuae Graecorum, ac Arabum clarissimi medici Opera quæ extant omnia…

Waller, 6524 ; Wellcome, 4283 ; see NLM, 3128 and Pritzel, 6113 (edition dated 1561).

Very good edition of the medical and pharmaceutical works of Mesuë. It was published in 1561 by Vincenzo Valgrisi, a French-born printer and bookseller active in Rome and Venice, and one of the most illustrious Italian typesetters of his time. The work was re-issued the following year with a new title.

A Nestorian Christian from Damascus who settled in Baghdad, Yuhanna ibn Masawayh, Latinised as Mesuë (c. 777-857), was physician to six caliphs, including Haroun al-Rachid and al-Mamoun. He wrote works on gynaecology, ophthalmology and dietetics, as well as an important pharmacopoeia and a medical encyclopaedia, all of which are included in this volume.

This impressive corpus is presented in two Latin versions: one in classical version, known from manuscripts and incunabula editions, the other compiled by Jacques Dubois (in Latin Jacobus Sylvius, 1478-1555), physician and anatomist, professor of chemistry at the Collège du Roy, excellent Latinist, Hellenist and Hebraist. The commentaries are by the same Dubois and the physician Andrea Marini, who died in Venice in 1570. The volume also contains notes by the physician, astrologer, and naturalist Giovanni Manardi (1462-1536) on the treatise on plants (De Simplicibus) and Mesuë’s Grabadin (Antidotarium), a manual for apothecaries that was regarded throughout the Middle Ages as the best reference on drugs. Mesuë’s texts were followed by important treatises on medicine and pharmacy, such as the Supplementum by Francesco di Pedimonte (on diseases of the chest, stomach, liver, intestines, etc. ), Niccolò da Salerno’s Antidotarium (one of the most popular pharmacopoeias of the Middle Ages) with commentaries by Jean de Saint-Amand, Cristoforo Onesti’s Expositio super Antidotarium Mesue, Pietro d’Abano’s treatise on tumours of the chest and diseases of the liver and stomach, and Saladino d’Ascoli’s Instructio aromatariorum, considered to be the first true modern pharmacopoeia. Taken together, these works provide a fascinating insight into medieval medicine and its metamorphosis during the Renaissance.

The section devoted to plants (De simplicibus) is decorated with 61 woodcuts in the text. Numerous initials. Some occasional stains; some restoration to inner margin of first 2 leaves sligthly touching2 letters. Some occasional old notes in brown ink.

Old ownership inscription on the title : “Ex. lib. quirici Amanrich et Denias medicinæ doctoris” ; this is probably Dr Gr. Amanrich, born in Pia, near Perpignan, died in 1708, author of several medical memoirs in Latin (see Quérard, I, 44) – Dr. Maurice Villaret (book plate).