Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 364

CASPAR WOLF (1532-1601) Gynaeciorum, hoc est, de mulierum tum aliis, tum gravidarum, parientium & puerperarum affectibus & morbis. Per Thomam Guarinum 1566 [20] pp., 868 [42] columns, [8] 63 pp., illus. 21.4 cm.

During the Renaissance there was a great upsurge of interest in the diseases of women, and it was during this period that this first encyclopedia of gynecology was published. Konrad Gesner (see No. 307 ff.) assembled a collection of the most important works on the diseases of women and was planning to publish them in a single volume but died before the work could be finished. However, he had asked Wolf, his friend and successor at the University of Zurich, to complete the task. Wolf finished the volume, which turned out to be a compendium on both gynecology and obstetrics. In addition to his own essay on gynecology, which contained excerpts from Theodorus Priscianus, Cleopatra, Moschion, and other sources, Wolf also included the following: excerpts from the works of Abulcasis; a book on diseases of women by Trotula (fl. 1050); a treatise by Nicolas de La Roche (fl. 1542), a French physician; a book on conception, miscarriage, delivery, infant care, and related subjects by Luigi Bonacciuoli (see No. 382); a treatise on menstruation and diseases of women by Jacques Dubois (Sylvius); and Gesner's and Wolf's own version of Moschion. Caspar Bauhin (see No. 392) revised this work in 1586 and Israel Spach edited a third and final edition in 1597 (see No. 391).

See Related Record(s): 307 382 392 391

Cited references: Cushing G501 (1586 ed., incomplete); Durling 2252; Garrison-Morton 6011; Waller 3897; Wellcome 3033

Gift of John Martin, M.D.