Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 227

ANDRES DE LAGUNA (1499-1560) Anatomica methodus, seu De sectione humani corporis contemplatio. Apud Ludovicum Cyaneum 1535 61 [3] ll., illus. (woodcut). 14.5 cm.

Laguna, a native of Segovia, began his education there and completed his baccalaureate in medicine at Paris in 1532, remaining there until the end of 1535. While in Paris he published his first three books and became acquainted with Vesalius (see No. 280 ff.). He returned to Spain in 1536 where he taught and completed his doctorate in medicine. In 1539 Laguna traveled extensively in England and the Low Countries and became town physician at Metz in 1540. Leaving Metz in 1545, he spent the next nine years mostly in Rome where he practiced medicine and engaged in extensive scientific activity, especially in the area of medical botany. He left for Flanders in 1554 and finally returned to Segovia in 1557 where he worked until his death three years later. Laguna was a prolific author publishing over thirty works, many of them on medical botany--one of his great interests. The present work is one of his earliest and was published simultaneously by Jacob Kerver, also in Paris. Laguna notes in the dedication that he spent only three months preparing the work and comments that, in his view, the medical profession of his day had fallen to a very low state. Written in a forthright manner, the book has a strong personal tone and cites few authorities but generally supports the views of Aristotle and Galen. Laguna begins his anatomy with the mouth because that is where the nutritive process is initiated and finishes with the brain where the spirits receive their complete transmutation. He cites few personal observations or autopsies and adds little to the progress of anatomy.

See Related Record(s): 280

Cited references: Durling 2703 (printed by Kerver); Garrison-Morton 369 (printed by Kerver)

Gift of John Martin, M.D.