Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 83.4

ROGER, OF SALERNO (ca.1140 – ca. 1195) A medieval medical atlas [Livre de chirurgie] [Editions Medicina Rara] [1983?] Facsimile reprint. leaves 1-9, 48-51, 136 : chiefly col. ill. 25 cm.

This sequence of brightly coloured miniatures from a magnificent 13th century French manuscript is among the best examples of leading French book illumination during the medieval period of Gothic style. Each miniature page of the Chirurgie is framed by decorative French lines and shows twelve different scenes. Especially adorned with gold leaf are the forty-nine scenes from the New Testament. Ninety-three scenes show surgical operations, while the last pictures show a sorcerer in bed treated by his surgeon and flanked by pictures of the Saints Cosmas and Damian, the patrons of medicine, and the patrons of the Paris College of Surgeons, founded in the 13th century. The third part, again introduced by a page of decorative initials, starts with a picture of Galen and Hippocrates holding a urine flask. Three more scenes of sorcerers and physicians include a last picture of a dead man being prepared for burial. The Medicina Rara facsimile of the miniatures in Ms. Sloane 1977 was published in an edition of 2800. Library’s copy is 82 of 2300 in the regular edition.

Gift of John Martin M.D.