Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 276

NICOLAS MONARDES (ca. 1512-1588) Simplicium medicamentorum ex Novo orbe delatorum, quorum in medicina usus est, historia. Ex officina Plantiniana, apud viduam, & Joannem Moretum 1593 3rd ed. [313]-456 pp. (pp. 449-454 are lacking from this copy), illus. 16.1 cm.

Monardes, a Spanish physician, was very much interested in the plants of the New World and established a botanical garden devoted exclusively to American flora. Although he never visited the Americas, he studied their flora and tested the medicinal properties of many plants on his patients. He first published his findings and observations in Spanish at Seville in 1565. This was followed in 1574 by a Latin edition and in 1577 by an English translation with the title Joyfull newes out of the newe founde worlde. The work was translated also into Italian, French, Flemish, and German. The present work, translated into Latin by Charles de I'Écluse, is the third Latin edition and contains accounts of such New World plants and drugs as tobacco, curare, guaiac, and chinaroot (sarsaparilla), as well as many other medicinal herbs.

See Related Record(s): 245 376

Cited references: Cushing M445 (1st Latin ed., 1574); Durling 3417; Osler 2327 (4th Latin ed., 1605); Waller 7006; Wellcome 4658

Gift of John Martin, M.D.