Hieronymus Brunschwig: a Fifteenth Century Surgeon and His Work.
New York: Ben Abramson, 1946. One of 112 copies. The present work is a revised version of an essay that was originally published in 1923 with a facsimile of Brunschwig’s Book of Cirurgia of 1497, by R. Lier & Co., in Milan. Eight facsimile woodcut illustrations, including frontispiece. With an original incunable leaf from Brunschwig’s Book of Cirurgia (Das Buch der cirurgia) of 1497 with a large woodcut on recto in a tri-fold envelope pocket on front pastedown. Binding extremities lightly rubbed. Minor soiling to cloth and boards. Slight wear to folds of envelope pocket. Bookplate on rear pastedown. A very good, tight copy. Orange cloth over printed beige boards. Octavo. 48 pp. Item #16467
“It is through [Karl] Sudhoff (historian of medicine, 1853-1938) that we have received an idea of what German surgery during the later Middle Ages was like...The achievements of the Italians and French are the brilliant models, to which these German writers never attained and which did not influence them to any great extent. All the more startling, therefore, is the contrast offered by the work of Hieronymus Brunschwig. For a long time he was thought to be the first German surgical author. This was a mistake…But he is the first who wrote an important manual that far surpassed the average productions, and the first German surgeon who took advantage of the recently invented printing-press, to gain a far wider sphere of influence. He was also the first who amply made use of the Italian and French sources” (pp. 13-14).
Disbound and Dispersed #96.
Price: $1,750.00