Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 126

JOHANNES DE KETHAM (fl. 1460) Fasciculus medicinae. Per Cesarem Arrivabenum 1522] [63] ll., illus., charts, diagrs. 29.2 cm.

Little is known of Johannes de Ketham. He was born in Swabia and was practicing medicine in Vienna in 1460. Even his connection with this book is tenuous; it is possible that his only association with it was that he was the owner of the manuscript from which the first edition of Venice, 1491, was printed, though he may also have edited the text. His name does not appear in the Italian translation of 1493/94 or the Spanish translation of 1495, which form the second and third editions respectively. Indeed, the name "de Ketham" is probably a corruption, by the Italian printers, of "von Kirchheim." The work is a collection of medical texts then current among students and practitioners, some of which had been in use for centuries, others more recent. Among the most important is the Anothomia of Mondino (see No. 97), which is the first modern treatise on anatomy, but which did not appear until the second edition of the Fasciculus medicinae. But the texts themselves, while not unimportant, pale alongside the illustrations which accompany the volume. Those appearing in the first edition were the first realistic illustrations to a medical book and are among the best woodcuts of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Among them are Zodiac Man, the Bloodletting Man, the Planet Man, the dissection scene, the Female Figure with Uterus, and, of special interest, the full-page woodcut showing Petrus de Montagnana teaching. The work was popular for a generation from the time of its first appearance in 1491, but after 1523 it was not much used. But during this twenty-four-year period it went through fourteen known editions and translations. In this 1522 edition, the thirteenth in the line of editions, the ten woodcuts had been altered or redrawn and recut over the years and even the older plates had suffered from wear over the years. But, despite this, they remain here of more than usual interest and beauty. This edition 1522, as its title-page tells us, is drawn from the 1500 edition. We meet now, however, with a number of additions . . . and the Ketham myth has reached its final form, for the volume opens with the phrase 'Here begins the Fasciculus medicinae composed by that most consummate Master of the Arts and of Medicine Dominus Johannes de Ketham the Alemanian. . . .'"

See Related Record(s): 97

Cited references: Choulant-Frank, pp. 115-122; Cushing K58; Durling 2660; Waller 5174; Wellcome 3549 (Italian ed.)

Gift of John Martin, M.D.