Europe
6,838 entries published in Europe.
1616
#3344
L’arte de’ cenni, con quale, formandosi favella visible, si tratta della muta eloquenza.
Bonifacio’s sign-language for the deaf and dumb employed almost every part of the body for conversational purposes.
1616 –1622
#11498
Fasciculus rariorum et aspectu dignorum varii generis quae collegit et suis impensis aeri ad vivum incidi curavit atque evulgavit.
Besler was the first to illustrate a natural history Wunderkammer in Germany. The engraved frontispiece of this work, which Besler published himself, depicts Besler exhibiting the contents to a visitor. The first edit…
1617
#2144
The surgions mate, or, A treatise discouering faithfully and plainely the due contents of the surgions chest: the uses of the instruments, the vertues and operations of the medicines, the cures of the most frequent diseases at sea: namely, wounds, apostumes, vlcers, fistulaes, fractures, dislocations, with the true maner of amputation, the cure of the scuruie, the fluxes of the belly, of the collica and illiaca passio, tenasmus, and exitus ani, the callenture; with a briefe explanation of sal, sulphur, and mercury; with certaine characters, and tearmes of arte.
Woodall was the surgeon-general to the East India Company. This was the first textbook for naval surgeons. Woodall, surgeon to Saint Bartholomew's Hospital, was an early advocate of limes and lemons as a preventive me…
1617
#13780
Discursus medico-philosophicus de casu adolescentis [...]: qui [...] mortuus in quodam paternarum aedium loco, adjacente ipsi serpente, à domesticis inventus fuit.
An extensively illustrated work on death from snake bites and species of venomous snakes instigated by the sudden death from snake bite of an otherwise healthy young man. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this…
1618
#1821
Pharmacopoeia Londinensis.
The first London pharmacopeia, issued by the (Royal) College of Physicians. The first edition was published on May 7, but contained many typographical errors; a corrected edition appeared on December 7, 1618. In the f…
1618
#10502
De affectionibus cordis. Libri tres. Qvorum primus agit de naturalibus. Secundus & tertius De preternaturalibus, de paliptatione nempe, & syncope, atque earum curatione.
The first book on heart disease. "The recognition of heart disease as of clinical interest and importance was exceedingly slow. In 1618, one hundred and eleven years after the pioneer publication of Benivieni of the p…
1619
#1480
Oculus, hoc est: fundamentum opticum.
Scheiner, a Jesuit astronomer, was a pioneer in physiological optics. He demonstrated how images fall on the human retina, noting the change in curvature of the lens during accommodation, and devised the pin-hole test…
1619
#13147
Procestria anatomica in quibus propununtur plaeraque ad generalem anatomia & partium contemplationeum attinent; quaedam etiam infimi ventris mebra explicantur; et Andreae Laurenti Historia anatomica multis locis castigatur & corrigitur.
Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. Peter Lauremberg edited the first edition of this anonymous Byzantine text on anatomy. The first illustrated edition was edited by Johann Stephan Bernard and Daniel Wi…
1620
#2145
Medicina militaris, seu libellus castrensis.
Minderer’s book gives a good idea of the position of military surgery during the Thirty Years’ War. He published a pharmacopoeia in 1621; he also discovered ammonium acetate. An English edition appeared in 1674.
1620
#3244.1
Question chirurgicale par laquelle il est demonstré que le chirurgien doit assurément practiquer l’opération de la bronchotomie, vulgairement dicte Laryngotomie ou perforation de la fluste tuyau du polmon.
Four successful cases. Scott Stevenson and Guthrie (see No. 3342) state that Brasavola performed laryngotomy (in 1546) and that Sanctorius also did so.
1620
#3345
Reduction de las letras, y arte para enseñar a ablar los mudos.
Bonet put into practice the “combined” system of teaching the deaf to speak and the dumb to communicate with others. He showed how the deaf could be taught to speak by reducing the letters to their phonetic value, and…
1621
#466
De formatione ovi et pulli.
1621 –1661
#1720
Quaestiones medico-legales. 9 vols.
Zacchias, a Papal physician, was one of the founders of medical jurisprudence. His treatise includes information concerning injuries of the eye, etc., and contains section on the medico-legal aspects of insanity. The …
1621
#4918.1
The anatomy of melancholy, what it is. With all the kindes, causes, symptomes, prognostickes, and severall cures of it.
The first psychiatric encyclopedia, citing nearly 500 medical authors, and also a literary tour de force. Burton was prompted write this book because of his own bouts with depression. It is one of the most popular psy…
1622
#5820
A treatise of one hundred and thirteene diseases of the eyes.
Although much of this is a translation of Guillemeau (No. 5818), the first 112 pages are Banister’s own work, “Banister’s Breviary”. He was an itinerant but honest oculist, the first to point out that hardness of the …
1622
#7554
Musaeum Franc. Calceolari Jun. Veronensis, a Benedicto Ceruto, medico, inceptum, et ab Andrea Chiocco, med. physico, descriptum et perfectum.
Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
1622
#7574
Continuatio rariorum et aspectu dignorum varii generis quae collegit et suis impensis aeri ad vivum indici curavit atque evulgavit....
This was the second edition, with 7 additional plates, of the privately printed catalogue of the natural history collection or museum of the Nuremberg botanist Basilius Besler, author of Hortus Eystettensis (1613). Th…
1622
#9633
Tabacologia: Hoc est, tabaci, seu nicotianae descriptio medico-cheirurgico-pharmaceutica: Vel eius praeparatio & usus in omnibus corporis humani incommodis.
Neander described tobacco, its processing, and medical-pharmaceutical use. His book Includes images of the plants, of Indian, Oriental and European types of pipes, as well as depictions of cultivation and processing b…
1622
#12529
La fleur des remèdes contre le mal des dents.
Digital facsimile of the second editiion "reveue corrigée & augmentée de nouveau" also printed in 1622 from BnF Gallica at this link. Translated into English by Jacques R. Fouré, edited by Milton B. Asbell as The flow…
1623
#2262.1
Tratado de las siete enfermedades, de la inflammacion universal del higado, zirbo, pyloron, y riñones, y de la obstrucion, de la satiriasi, de la terciana y febre maligna, y passion hipocondriaca. Lleva otros tres tratados, del mal de Loanda, del guzano, y de las fuentes y sedales.
The first important work on tropical diseases. Only six copies of the original edition of this book are known. It includes full accounts of malaria, typhoid, and scurvy, and the first accurate descriptions of yellow f…
1623
#5821
Uso del los antojos para todo genero de vistas, en que se enseña a conocer los grados que a cada uno le faltan de su vista, y los que tienen qualesquier antojos.
The earliest scientific work dealing with spectacles. It includes sight testing tables and points out the value of convex lenses after cataract operations. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. Eng…
1623
#9868
Pinax theatri botanici.
The Pinax theatri botanici (English, Illustrated exposition of plants) described and classified about 6,000 species. "The classification system was not particularly innovative, using traditional groups such as "trees"…
1623
#10491
Historia vitae & mortis. Sive, titulus secundus in historia naturali & experimentali ad condendam philosophiam: Quae est instaurationis magnae pars tertia.
This was Bacon's direct contribution to medicine or medical philosophy, with natural and experimental observations on the prolongation of life. Translated into English as The History naturall And experimentall, of lif…
1624
#2971
De tumoribus praeter naturam libri quinque. Ex instructissima Bibliotheca Ranchiniana eruti, & publici iuris facti, cura & studio Henric Gras...Accessit Ioannis Saportae Tractatus de lue venerea.
IN 1554 Saporta gave the earliest description of an aortic aneurysm. Many years after Saporta's death Henri Gras of Lyon discovered the manuscript of Saporta's book, and edited it for publication. Digital facsimile fr…
1624
#5229
De semitertiana libri quatuor.
First extensive account of malaria.
1625
#2668
Commentaria in primam fen primi libri canonis Avicennae.
The chief value of this work is in its cautious revelation of the principles of construction of various instruments that Santorio had invented, including a hygrometer, a pendulum for measuring pulse rate, a syringe fo…
1626
#12781
Barbiere di Tiberio Malfi da Monte Sarchio Barbiere, e consule dell’arte in Napoli Libri Tre. Ne qualisi ragiona dell’eccellenza dell’Arte, e de’ suoi precetti. Delle Vene, e regole d’aprirle.
Published when barbers saw their work increasingly competed with by professional surgeons, Malfi’s book stresses medical knowledge of barbers and their expertise in performing medical procedures. It is Illustrated wit…
1627
#381
Tabulae anatomicae lxxiix.
First publication of the very beautiful copperplates engraved by Francesco Valesio after Odoardo Fialetti, a pupil of Titian. Casseri commissioned these plates covering the whole field of human anatomy for his unfinis…
1627
#1094
De lactibus sive lacteis venis.
Records the discovery of the lacteal vessels. While performing vivisection on a dog that had recently fed, Aselli noticed a network of vessels in the mesentery and along the peritoneal surface of the intestine. The ve…
1627
#2196
De febribus libri iv. Accessit ad calcem; ejusdem de dysenteria tractatus.
An important monograph on fevers.
1628
#759
Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus.
Discovery and experimental proof of the circulation of the blood. Together with Vesalius’s Fabrica (1543), Harvey’s De motu cordus shares the honor as the greatest book in the history of medicine. Since antiquity, ide…
1628
#2011
Methodus facile parandi iucunda tuta et nova medicamenta & eius applicatio aduersus chimicos.
Page 170 includes the first definite description of a blood transfusion, notably published in the same year as Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood in De motu cordis. Digital facsimile from Google Books …
1628
#1821.1
Rerum medicarum Novae Hispaniae thesaurus, seu, Plantarum animalium mineralium Mexicanorum historia.
This summary of Hemández’s very extensive manuscript account of the natural history of Mexico (see No. 1820.1) was edited by N.A. de Recchi, and published at the expense of Prince Federico Cesi (1585-1630), with notes…
1628
#11499
Les oeuvres de Jacques et Paul Contant pere et fils maistres apoticaires de la ville de Poictiers. Divisées en cinq traictez. 1. Les commentaires sur Dioscoride. 2. Le second Eden. 3. Exagoge mirabilium naturae e gazophylacio. 4. Synopsis plantarum cum ethymologiis. 5. Le jardin & cabinet poëtique ....
Jacques and Paul Contant were Huguenot apothecaries in Poitiers, and notable collectors. There were among the first in France to assemble a cabinet of curiosities or Wunderkammer. The first work, a commentary on Diosc…
1629
#1822
Paradisi in sole paradisus terrestris. Or a garden of all sorts of pleasant flowers which our English ayre will permitt to be noursed vp: with a kitchen garden of all manner of herbes, rootes, & fruites, for meate or sause vsed with vs, and an orchard of all sorte of fruitbearing trees and shrubbes fit for our land together with the right orderinge planting & preseruing of them and their vses & vertues.
The title is a pun on the author’s name (park-in-sun). Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.
1629 –1631
#11597
Integrum morborum mysterium, sive medicinæ catholicæ tomi primi tractatus secundus. [Pulsus seu nova et arcana pulsuum historia ... Hoc est, portionis tertiae pars tertia, de pulsuum scientia ... medicorum ... sive tomi primi tractatus secundi, sectio secunda, de morborum signis ... hoc est, divinatio per urinam.] In sectiones distributus duas : quorum ...
Fludd's Pulsus seu nova et arcana pulsuum historia contain's Fludd's chief medical writings. Dated 1629, but issued in this form, Fludd's Pulsus was the first published endorsement of Harvey's theory of the circulatio…
1629
#12000
Iter plantarum investigationis ergo susceptum a decem Sociis in Agrum Cantianum, anno Dom. 1629, Julii 13. Ericetum Hamstedianum sive Plantarum ibi crescentium observatio habita, anno eodem I. Augusti. Descripta studio, & opera Thomæ Iohnsoni.
Johnson, an apothecary published this record of what he collected during a herb-collecting excursion conducted on July 13, 1629, with an appendix recounting the results of a second excursion on August 1. This was the …
1630
#1721
Disputatio medica de notis virginitatis.
Details the methods of previous and contemporary writers concerning the determination of virginity. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
1630
#259
Persio tradotto.
The first book to contain illustrations of natural objects as seen through the microscope— specifically an engraving of the exterior surface of bees. The work includes the Latin text of the Satyrae VI of Aulus Persius…
1631
#13630
Curioso tratado de la naturaleza y calidad del chocolate, divido en quatro puntos. En el primero se trata, que sea chocolate; y que calidad tenga el cacao, y los demas ingredientes. En el segundo, se trata la calidad que result de rodos ellos. En el tercero se trata el modo de hazerlo, y de quanta maneras se toma en las Indias, y qual dellas es mas saludable. El ultimo punto trata de la quantidad, y como se ha de toma, y en que tiempo, y que personas.
Digital facsimile of the 1631 edition from bdh-rd.bne.es at this link . Translated into French in 1643 as Du chocolate discours curieux, divisé en quatre parties. Par Antoine Colmenero de Ledesma medecin & chirurgien…
1632
#2273
De recondita abscessuum natura.
The first textbook of surgical pathology. It treats of all kinds of swelling under the term “abscess” and describes neoplasms of the genital organs and sarcoma of bones. Tumors of the breast are classified into four g…
1632
#6795
Quaestio iatrophilologica.
Learned bibliophile Gabriel Naudé eventually became Mazarin’s librarian and built up for his master a famous collection of books. He wrote an important medical dictionary. Four further parts of the above, with varying…
1632
#287
Thaumatographia naturalis, in decem classes distincta, in quibus admiranda 1 Coeli. 2 Elementorum. 3 Meteororum. 4 Fossilium. 5 Plantarum. 6 Avium. 7 Quadrupedum. 8 Exanguium. 9 Piscium. 10 Hominis.
A unillustrated pocket guide, issued in duodecimo format on "admiranda" or wonders of nature organized in ten categories (heaven, earth, and topics relating to meteors, fossils or minerals, plants, birds, quadrupeds, …
1632
#12780
Nuoua, et vtilissima prattica di tutto quello ch'al diligète barbiero s'appartiene: E particolarmente del cauar sangue ....
An extensively llustrated manual published specifically for barber surgeons, published in the vernacular, and instructing them in the art of bloodletting and phlebotomy, embalming dead bodies, curing headaches, and va…
1633
#5569
Helps for suddain accidents endangering life
The first book on first-aid. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
1633
#12002
The herball or generall historie of plantes. Gathered by John Gerarde of London master in chirurgerie. Very much enlarged and amended by Thomas Johnson citizen and apothecarye of London.
A very substantial expansion and update of Gerarde's herbal published in 1597. Besides correcting mistakes, Johnson added over 800 new species and 700 new figures, raising the number of plant descriptions in the work …
1634
#381.1
Anatomie der uuterlicke deelen van het menschelick lichaem: Dienende om te verstaen ende volkometlick wt te beelden alle beroerlicheit des selven lichaems.
The earliest of all independent works on anatomy for graphic or plastic artists. The author, a painter and etcher, drew and engraved all the images himself. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
1634
#288
Insectorum sive minimorum animalium theatrum: Olim ab Edoardo Wottono, Conrado Gesnero, Thomaque Pennio inchoatum: Tandem Tho. Movfeti Londinâtis operâ sumptibusque maximis concinnatum, auctum, perfectum: Et ad vivum expressis iconibus suprà quingentis illustratum.
Edited for publication, and with an introduction by Théodore de Mayerne. Moffet, or Muffet, travelled extensively in Europe and kept copious notes of his observations on insects. He "first studied silkworms while work…
1634
#12611
Opuscula medica senilia in quatuor libros tributa, quorum I. De dentibus. II. De rationali curandi ratione. III. De facultatibus medicamentorum, praecipud purgantium. IV. De morbo regio. Omnia nunc primum ex MS. Bibliotheca Romana in lucem data: ad singulare philiatrorum, omniumque sane philosophantium emolumentum, adiectis indicibus necessariis.
![CARDANO, Girolamo [Gerolamo; Hieronymus Cardanus] (1501 – 1576)](/media/portraits/7679)
1635
#8953
Canadensium plantarum, aliarúmque nondum editarum historia.
First description of the Canadian Flora. Cornut was a French botanist and physician who never visited North America, but instead received the majority of his plant specimens from the Robins family, who supervised the …