Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 328

PIETER VAN FOREEST (1522-1597) Observationum et curationum medicinalium libri tres. Ex officina Plantiniana, Apud Franciscum Raphelengium 1590 [24] 90 [6] 323 [21] 919 [7] pp. 16 cm.

Foreest was a Dutch clinician who practiced for many years in Alkmaar and later at Delft. He studied medicine in Italy and was a pupil and colleague of Vesalius (see No. 280 ff.). His wide-ranging interests included botany, and he brought a large number of medicinal plants with him when he returned to Holland. He was a prolific writer and began publishing his Observationes et curationes series in 1588. At the time of his death, this comprehensive series on diseases numbered thirty-two books. It was his practice to issue three or four books at a time, and the first seven books had already been published before this work, containing the eighth through tenth books, appeared. This work is primarily devoted to diseases of the head, and, in all probability, is the first edition. The tenth book contains a rare consilium (letter of consultation) from Vesalius to Foreest concerning a serious case of nosebleed in a young man. Only six of the many consilia that Vesalius undoubtedly wrote have survived.

See Related Record(s): 280

Cited references: Cushing Vesalius VIII.D.-1; Durling 1612; Wellcome 2360 (incomplete)

Gift of John Martin, M.D.