Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 67

AVICENNA (980-1037) Canon medicinae. Johannes Trechsel, completed by Johannes Clein 1498 Vol. I: [452] ll.; Vol. II: [380] ll.; Vol. III: [358] ll.; Vol. IV: [142] ll. 39.8 cm.

Avicenna needs little or no introduction to those familiar with the history of medicine. Known in the Persian world as the Chief or the Second Doctor (Aristotle having been the first), Avicenna was an accomplished physician as well as a noted philosopher. He wrote widely on theology, metaphysics, astronomy, philosophy, law, and medicine, and it has been estimated that he was the author of more than one hundred books. The Canon was his greatest medical compilation and "stands for the epitome of all precedent development, the final codification of all Graeco-Arabic medicine" (Max Neuburger, History of medicine, translated by Ernest Playfair. London, 1910. Vol. I, p. 368). A large encyclopedic work on medicine, it is, for the most part, based on the writings of Hippocrates and Galen although Avicenna included many original observations and noteworthy clinical descriptions. It went through at least ten Latin editions between 1473 and 1493 and was a dominant force in medical thought, practice, and writing for more than five centuries. Although the present work is complete, it contains only selected parts of the Canon as translated by Gerardus Cremonensis. Present here are Book I on the definition and scope of medicine, the classification of diseases, the preservation of health, and dietetics; portions of Book III on the diagnosis and treatment of diseases; the section on fever from Book IV. The extensive commentary is that of Jacques Desparts (ca. 1380-1458), clergyman and physician to King Charles VII, and the work was edited by Jacques Ponceau (fl. 1480). This massive and beautiful incunable is the first edition of Avicenna to have been printed in France and is a landmark in the history of French printing. These three large volumes, printed on heavy paper, were rubricated throughout in red and blue.

Cited references: GKW 3127; Goff A 1428; Hain 2214; Klebs 131.13

Gift of John Martin, M.D.