Items

Title

An Abstract of the Patent Granted by His Majesty King George…

Description

Patent medicines originated in England in the mid 17th century and were marketed with extravagant claims, offering cures for a host of maladies. Recommendations for dosage were vague, and ingredients (often including opium) were usually not specified. In 1726 Benjamin Okell was granted the royal patent for Dr. Bateman’s Pectoral Drops, a tincture of gambir (an astringent extract from an Asian plant) and opium. Advertisements published in the London Mercury as early as 1721 directed prospective customers to the warehouse and printing shop at Bow's Churchyard, where they could purchase the drops for one shilling. Our copy of the 1731 reprint by Peter Zenger is likely the first piece of medical printing in New York. Zenger, who would later become famous for printing seditious texts, was instrumental in establishing freedom of the press in America. The Academy has the only known copy. Bound with our copy of the abstract is a copy of A Short treatise of the virtues of Dr. Bateman's Pectoral Drops, also issued by Okell and his printing house partners. Here, Batemans efficacy as a treatment for numerous ailments are described in sections dedicated to each. The last section of the treatise offers testimonials from satisfied customers.

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Subjects (LC)

Advertising—Medicine, Early works to 1800, Fever, Medicine, Patent medicines, Rheumatism

Title

Apicius [De re culinaria Libri I-IX]

Description

This manuscript contains 500 Greek and Roman recipes from the fourth and fifth century, both culinary and medical, reflecting the polyglot culture of the Mediterranean basin. Sometimes referred to as the oldest extant cookbook in the West, the manuscript is divided into ten books. It is likely that the Apicius began as a Greek collection, mainly written in Latin, and adapted for a Roman palate. The collection is likely compiled from many sources, as no evidence exists that Apicius (a Roman gourmet in 1st century AD), authored a book of cookery. Our manuscript was penned in several hands in a mix of Anglo-Saxon and Carolingian scripts at the monastery at Fulda (Germany) around 830 AD. It is one of two manuscripts (the other at the Vatican) presumed to have been copied from a now lost common source. The Apicius manuscript is the gem of the Academy’s Margaret Barclay Wilson Collection of cookery, acquired in 1929.

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Subjects (LC)

Cookbooks, Cooking, Latin peoples, Cooking, Mediterranean, Cooking, Roman, Early works to 1800, Manuscripts, Medicine

Title

De symmetria partium in rectis formis humanorum

Description

Albrecht Dürer, printmaker and painter of the German Renaissance, was equally famous during his lifetime for contributions to the study of mathematics and proportion. In this text, Dürer treats the arithmetic and geometrical constructions of bodies, largely at rest. Numerous woodcuts represent bodies male and female in various sizes and ages, and register their measurements. The ideas expressed in the De symmetria and the two complimentary volumes that followed, also on human proportion, were widely influential on artists and anatomists for centuries to come. This 1532 text in Latin contains the first two books of the results of this research, first published in German in 1528 as Vier Bücher von menschlicher Proportion (Four Books on Human Proportion.) Dürer died shortly after receiving the first proofs of the German edition; the remaining publication details were completed by his friends. Our copy is bound in stamped pigskin, with a front panel illustrating Jacob’s ladder and a back panel depicting the baptism of Christ. The woodcut monogram Dürer developed in 1497 to protect his work from piracy is visible on the title page.

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Subjects (LC)

Anatomy, Artistic, Anthropometry, Early works to 1800, Human figure in art, Medical illustration, Medicine, Proportion (Anthropometry), Proportion (Art), Wood-engraving—16th century

Title: Fasciculus medicine in quo continentur : videlicet. [1495]
Description: This is the fourth edition of the Fasciculus and the third printed in Venice (after 1491 and 1493 editions both also by the Brothers Gregorii). It was printed in Latin and reset in Gothic type. In this edition, the page is shorter by four lines, resulting in plates that are too large and in many cases, clipped by the binder. This is the earliest edition with a real title page. Our copy lacks the urinoscopic consultation plate and the plate showing the circle of urine glasses.
Subjects (LC): Medicine-Early works to 1800, Medicine, Medieval, Human anatomy-Early works to 1800, Human anatomy-Charts, diagrams, etc, Plague-Early works to 1800, Phlebotomy-Early works to 1800

Title

Here biginneth the inventorie or the collectorye in cirurgicale parte of medicene compiled and complete in the yere of oure Lord

Description

An illuminated and illustrated manuscript of the Chirurgia magna, or great surgery, by Guy de Chauliac. Attempting in the Chirurgia to collect the best medical ideas of his time, he compiled sources from Arabic and Greek writers, including Rhazes, Avicenna, Hippocrates, Aristotle and others. Guy wrote the first text of the Chirurgia in Latin at Montpellier, in approximately 1363. This text was published in many editions and remained the authoritative text on surgery through the seventeenth century. It consists of 181 pages of English black letter in double columns and lines lightly ruled in red. It is ornately illuminated in gold and silver with finely decorated floral borders and large floriated initials, heightened with gold leaf. The manuscript includes 24 drawings of surgical instruments. The calf binding dates to Henry VIII’s reign or to the Elizabethan era. The original brass and leather clasps are engraved with stars and lion heads. There has been dispute about the manuscript’s date, with authorities dating it between the late 14th and second half of the 15th century. The manuscript was sold with the Streeter collection to the New York Academy of Medicine in 1928.

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Subjects (LC)

Early works to 1800, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Manuscripts, Medical illustration, Medicine, Medicine—History, Medicine, Medieval, Surgery—History, Surgical instruments and apparatus

Title

Historae Rerum Naturalium, Liber Sextus, Qui agit Quadrupedibus, & Serpentibus

Description

The Dutch West India Company occupied northeastern Brazil from 1624 to 1654. In 1638, the physician Willem Piso and astronomer Georg Markgraf arrived as part of Johann Maurits’s research staff, tasked with promoting scientific studies in Brazil. This section of the Historia naturalis Brasiliae was written by Piso's colleague, the astronomer Georg Markgraf. Markgraf wrote the last eight sections of the Historia naturalis Brasiliae, of which this is the sixth. These sections as a whole were devoted to the medical uses of plants; to fish, birds, insects, quadrupeds and reptiles; and to full descriptions of geographic regions and their inhabitants. Markgraf also describes the appearance, habits, and environment of each animal depicted.

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Subjects (LC)

Botanical illustration, Early works to 1800, Indians of Central America, Indigenous crops, Indigenous peoples—Ecology, Natural history—Brazil, Natural history illustration, Medical geography, Medicine, Zoological illustration, Zoology—Brazil, Zoology—Pre-Linnean works, Wood-engraving

$La methode curative des playes, et fractures de la teste humaine avec les pourtraits des instruments$

Title

La methode curative des playes, et fractures de la teste humaine avec les pourtraits des instruments

Description

Ambroise Paré is renowned as the father of modern surgery. In obstetrics, Paré pioneered a new way of turning an infant in the uterus. He also made significant advancements in the treatment of hernias, the fitting of artificial limbs and eyes, and devised a new instrument to reduce hemorrhage after amputation. As with much of his work, the Methode Curative was widely distributed and reached a large audience. Long considered a classic text on the treatment of head wounds, this book contains 74 woodcuts, many hand-colored and adapted from the corpus of Vesalius. The first section, devoted to the anatomy of the head, is illustrated with woodcuts. The anatomical engravings were modified from the woodcuts of Vesalius and completed by the talented Jean le Royer, King’s Printer. The second part of the book details the treatment of head wounds, skull fractures and diseases of the face. Included in this section are drawings of surgical instruments, many fashioned by Paré himself. The book contains the woodcut portrait by Jean Cousin, printed in an oval surrounded by Paré’s motto, “Labor improbus omnia vincit” (hard work conquers all). It is bound in limp vellum, with a gold-tooled vignette on the cover.

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Subjects (LC)

Anthropometry, Early works to 1800, General Surgery, Head—Anatomy, Head—Wounds and injuries, Medical illustration, Medicine, Surgery, Surgery—History, Surgical instruments and apparatus, Wood-engraving, Wounds and Injuries

Title

[Introduction]

Description

The Dutch West India Company occupied northeastern Brazil from 1624 to 1654. In 1638, the physician Willem Piso and astronomer Georg Markgraf arrived as part of Johann Maurits’ research staff, tasked with promoting scientific studies in Brazil. This is the Introduction to their collaborative illustrated folio volume, which spanned 12 books and was published in 1648. Rich in description of native life, the book contains 446 woodcuts illustrating local flora and fauna, and comprises the most important early documentation of zoology, botany and medicine in Brazil.

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Subjects (LC)

Botanical illustration, Early works to 1800, Indians of Central America, Indigenous crops, Indigenous peoples—Ecology, Natural history—Brazil, Natural history illustration, Medical geography, Medicine, Zoological illustration, Zoology—Brazil, Zoology—Pre-Linnean works, Wood-engraving

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