Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 263.5

GUIDO GUIDI (1500-1569) Les anciens et renommés aucteurs de la medicine et chirurgie : Hippocrates : des ulceres, des fistules, des playes de la teste avec les commentaires de Guy Vide sur chascun livre. Hippocrates : des fractures, des articles, de l’officine duchirurgien avec les commentaires de Galien. Galien : des bandes. Oribase: des lacqs, des machines & engins / le tout traduict fidelement du grec & du latin en françoys, par un docteur en medicine , & illustré de figures, par lesquelles la chose est au vif representee, aveq une table tresample de toutes les matieres principales. par Guillaume Roville 1555 First edition. [14], 7-1342, [45] p. ill. 18 cm

For more information on this author or work, see number: 263

Rare first edition of Guidi’s French translation of this important compilation of Greek authors on surgery, by the Byzantine physician Nicetas, beautifully and profusely illustrated with woodcuts copied, and reduced, from the first Latin edition of 1544, which were taken from the original Greek manuscript. Guido Guidi, was born in Florence where he first practiced medicine and gained great reputation. In 1542 Francois I called him to a professorship at the College de France in Paris, where he was also made first personal physician to his benefactor. Before his arrival in France he was shown, by the bibliophile Cardinal Niccolo Ridolfi, a collection of medical treatises in Greek manuscript. Some were accompanied by pictures for instructive purposes, notably 30 full sized plates illustrating the commentary of Appollonius of Kitium on the Hippocratic treatise on dislocations with many smaller pictures scattered through the pages of Galen’s treatise on bandaging. They included pen and brush drawings illustrating the various manipulations and apparatus used in reducing dislocations and fractures. Their origin probably goes back to Alexandria or Cyprus where Apollonius wrote his commentary between 85 and 51 BC, and the illustrations may have been made during his lifetime. The Galen illustrations date from the 2nd century AD. They were transcribed directly from antiquity and represent the genuine Hippocratic tradition of surgical practice as transmitted through later Greek channels to Byzantium. This transcript fell into Turkish hands at the sack of Constantinople, and was bought in Crete in 1495 and brought to Florence by the Greek scholar Joannes Lascaris (c.1445-1535). It is now in the Laurentian Library. At the suggestion of Ridolfi, Guidi undertook its Latin translation which he published with his commentaries at Paris in 1544. The illustrations are thought to have been made from drawings by the Italian Mannerist Francesco Primaticcio who copied and partially redrew from the Greek manuscript. The translations include six works by Hippocrates, one by Galen, two by Oribasius, with commentaries by Galen and by Guidi himself. The last of the translations is the ‘De Machinamentis’ of Oribasius. The original Greek manuscript of this part contained no illustrations and the illustrations here are drawn from models Guidi made himself to illustrate these new forms of traction. It was by far the best illustrated work on surgery that had been published to date. The work was originally published with a ‘permission’ forbidding reproduction for 10 years which had just elapsed when this anonymous French translation was made in Lyon. We have been unable to identify the Larens Treguil, the first owner of the work; however the Treguil name is associated with a noble family from Brittany. Several ‘Treguils’ were members of the Parliament de Bretagne. A very good copy of this beautifully illustrated and important work.

See Related Record(s): 47 263 264 265

Cited references: Waller 4510; Cushing A176; NLM 16th c. #2205

John Martin M.D. Endowment