Europe
6,838 entries published in Europe.
1586
#150
De humana physiognomonia libri IIII.
Della Porta preceded Lavater in attempting to estimate human character by the features. This is one of the first works on the ancient “science” of physiognomy to be extensively illustrated.
1586
#3417
De medica historia mirabili.
An early history of diseases, with extensive sections on ophthalmology (ff. 66-77) and urology (ff. 260-271). Lib. IV, Cap. iii, page 196 contains the first recorded case of gastric ulcer. Lib. VI. cap. iii contains t…
1586
#4918
A treatise of melancholie, containing the causes thereof.
First comprehensive description of depression in English. Bright also produced the first noteworthy geometrical system of shorthand, consisting of circles, half-circles, and straight lines (Characterie, London, 1588).
1586
#5819
A briefe treatise touching the preseruation of the eie sight.
This is the first separate work on ophthalmology printed in England.
1586 –1588
#6012
Gynaeciorum sive de mulierum affectibus commentarii Graecorum, Latinorum, barbarorum, iam olim & nunc recens editorum: in tres tomos digesti, et necessariis passim imaginibus illustrati. 4 vols.
A hugely enlarged version of No. 6011, with texts in Greek as well as Latin. Digital facsimile of vol. 1 from Google Books at this link.
1586
#10634
De venenis, et antidotis prolegomena: seu communia praecepta ad humanam vitam tuendam saluberrima; in quibus diffinitiva methodus venenorum proponitur per genera, ac differentias suas, partes, & passiones, praeservandi modum, & communia ad eorum curationem antidota complectens; de canis rabiosi morsu, et eius curatione.
Digital facsimile from cervantesvirtual.com at this link.
1586 –1587
#13118
Historia generalis plantarum. In libros XVIII. per certas classes artificiose digesta, Haec, plusquam mille imaginibus plantarum locupletior superioribus, omnes propemodum quae ab antiquis scriptoribus Graecis, Latinis, Arabibus, nominantur : necnon eas quae in Orientis atque Occidentis partibus, ante seculum nostrum incognitis, repertae fuerunt, tibi exhibec. Habes etiam earundem plantarum peculiaria diuersis nationibus nomina: habes amplas descriptiones, è quibus singularum genus, formam, vbi crescant & quo tempore vigeant, natiuum temperamentum, vires denique in medicina proprias cognosces. Adiecti sunt Indices, non solùm Graeci et Latini, sed aliarum quoque linguarum, locupletissimi. 2 vols.
The "most complete botanical compilation of its time and the first to descrbie much of the flora peculiar to the region around Lyons" (DSB). Digital facsimile from Bibloteca digital, Real Jardín Botanico at this link.
1587
#5733.52
De decoratione liber…Additi nunc primum duo tractatus, alter, de varicibus, alter de reficiendo naso.
This work on cosmetics contains Tagliacozzi’s first publication on rhinoplasty – De reficiendo naso – a letter written to Mercuriale in response to inaccurate statements about Tagliacozzi's methods made by Mercuriale …
1587
#7337
De humano foetu liber tertio editus, ac recognitus. Eiusdem anatomicarum observationum liber: ac De tumoribus secundum locos affectos liber nunc primum editi.
First edition of Aranzi's Anatomicarum observationum published with the third edition of De humano foetu. In the Anatomicarum observationum Aranzi pointed out that the eye muscles arise from the margin of the optic ca…
1587
#10660
De virtutibus et viciis cordis libri tres. Primus agit de virtutibus & functionibus cordis. Secundus de palpitatione cordis. Tertius de syncope.
The earliest separate treatise on cardiac physiology and pathology. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
1587
#11101
Medicina universa, ex lectiones eius caeterisque opusculis, tum impressis, tum scriptis collecta, & in tres tomos nunc primum decenti ordine digesta, studio & opera Martini Weindrichii.
Montanus became a professor of practical medicine at Ferrara and at the University of Padua in 1539. His greatest innovation was to introduce clinical medicine into the curriculum as a way to integrate medical theory …
1588
#2141
A prooved practise for all young chirurgians, concerning burnings with gunpowder, and woundes made with gunshot.
An interesting picture of Elizabethan surgery is given by William Clowes in this book on gunshot wounds. Clowes, the best surgical writer in Elizabethan times, was surgeon to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. In amputation …
1588
#4160
Tratado de todas las enfermedades de los riñones, vexiga, y carnosidades de la verga, y urina.
First treatise on diseases of the urinary tract. Also describes the high operation for stone. Diaz is sometimes called the “Father of Urology”.
1588
#6793
Oeconomia Hippocratis, aphabeti serie distincta. In qua dictionum apud Hippocratem omnium, praesertim obscuriorum, usus explicatur, etc.
A Greek alphabetical dictionary of the vocabulary of the Hippocratic writings, based on an exhaustive investigation of all ancient medical texts.
1588
#3416
A most excellent and compendious method of curing woundes in the head, and in other partes of the body: With other precepts of the same arte, practised and written by that famous man Franciscus Arceus ... and translated into English by Iohn Read, chirurgion: Whereunto is added the exact cure of the caruncle, never before set foorth in the English toung: With a treatise of the fistulae in the fundament, and other places of the body, translated out of Iohannes Ardern: And also the discription of the emplaister called Dia Chalciteos, with its use and vertues: With an apt table for the better finding of the perticular matters, contayned in this present worke.
![HIPPOCRATES, [Ἱπποκράτης; Hippocrates of Kos] (-460 – -370)](/media/portraits/50)
This translation by surgeon John Read contains the first printing of John of Arderne's writings on his operation for the cure of anal fistula, written originally about 1376. At one time John of Arderne practiced at Ne…
1588
#13350
Hortus medicus et philosophicus: In quo plurimarum stirpium breves descriptiones, novae icones non paucae, indicationes locorum natalium, observationes de cultura earum peculiares, atque insuper nonnulla remedia euporista, nec non philologicae quadame continenteur. Item sylva Hercynia: sive catalgus plantarum sponte nascentium in montibus & locis plerisque.
Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
1588
#13546
De medico hebraeo: Enarratio apologica ... Apposita sunt praeterea, non paucorum amplissimorum principum, quam multa decreta, in hebraeorum fauorem constituta. Annectuntur, quinetiam, in tractatus calce, nonnulla aurea dicta; ex priscorum hebraeorum monumentis excerpta; nunc primum, latinitate donata, & ad studiosorum vtilitatem, in lucem edita. Dauid de Pomis, medico physico hebraeo, auctore.
De Pomis was a rabbi and physician. "... on account of the edict of Pius IV forbidding Jewish physicians to attend Christians (1555), he moved from town to town in Italy before he settled in 1569 in Venice, where he p…
1589 –1591
#8466
Der Bücher und Schriften des Edlen, Hochgelehrten und Bewehrten Philosophi und Medici, Philipi Thephrasti Bombast von Hohen hem, Paracelsi genannt. Edited by Johannes Huser. 10 vols.
First edition of Paracelsus's collected works. Though all the autographs of Paracelsus's writings were later lost, Huber, who was born shortly after Paracelsus's death, was able to collect a great number of autographs…
1590
#2244
Historia natural y moral de las Indias.
One of the earliest detailed and realistic descriptions of the New World. Acosta hypothesized that the indigenous peoples of Latin America had migrated from Asia. He also divided the native peoples into three barbaria…
1590
#3343
De compositione medicamentorum; De morbis oculorum, & aurium….
The De oculorum et aurium represents the first “clinical” manual on diseases of the ear. Mercuriali was primarily concerned with treatment.
1590
#6743.1
Bibliotheca medica. Sive catalogus illorum, qui ex professo artem medicam in hunc usque annum scriptis illustrarunt.
The first systematic medical bibliography. Includes an annotated list of 1,224 authors writing in Latin, lists of French, German, and Italian writers, and other material. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
1590
#10962
Libellus Rogerii Baconi Angli doctissimi mathematici et medici, De retardandis senectutis accidentibus et de sensibus conservandis.... opera Johannis Williams Oxoniensis.
Translated into English by Richard Browne as The cure of old age and preservation of youth by Roger Bacon, a Franciscan frier (London, 1683). Digital facsimile of the 1683 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.
1591
#6468
De medicina Aegyptiorum, libri quatuor.
The first significant work on the history of Egyptian medicine, and one of the first European studies of non-European medicine. Alpini became professor of botany at Padua after having spent three years in Egypt. Frenc…
1591
#6743.2
Nomenclator scriptorum medicorum. Hoc est: elenchus eorum qui artem medicam suis scriptis illustrarunt, secundum locos communes ipsius medicinae.
The first medical subject bibliography, arranged under very broad subject headings with indexes of authors and subjects. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
1591
#13351
L'horto dei semplici di Padova, oue si vede primieramente la forma di tutta la pianta con le sue misure: & indi i suoi partimenti distinti per numeri in ciascuna arella, intagliato in rame.
First catalogue of the Orto botanico di Padova, the oldest academic botanical garden that remains in its original location., Digital facsimile from fc.cab.unipd.it at this link.
1592
#379
Theatrum anatomicum infinitis locis auctum, ad morbos accommodatum....
Includes historical data. Bauhin was professor of anatomy at Basle.
1593
#756
Quaestionum peripateticum, libri V.
A greatly expanded second edition. The results of tying a vein and the centripetal flow in veins were first recorded in print by Cesalpino (lib. ii, Qu. xvii, p. 234). See the English translation, with commentary, of …
1593
#5566
De gangraena et sphacelo.
Fabricius, the “Father of German Surgery”, was the first to advocate the amputation above the gangrenous or injured part. He is accredited with the first amputation of the thigh. In his work he makes no reference to P…
1593
#44
Kitāb al-Qānūn fial-ţibb. [Libri V Canonis medicinae.]
![AVICENNA, [Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Al-Hasan ibn Ali ibn Sīnā] (980 – 1037)](/media/portraits/9572)
Title transliterated. Text and title page (except imprint) are in Arabic. This is the first printing of the text in Arabic of Book V of al-Qānūn. See also S. M. Afnan, Avicenna, his life and works. London, 1958.
1594
#3669
La chirurgie françoise recueillie des antiens médecins et chirurgiens.
Guillemeau was Paré’s son-in-law. His splendidly illustrated work is of special importance for dentistry and for surgery for cleft lip. It describes pyorrhea alveolaris for the first time and is also the first work to…
1594
#10373
Alphabet anatomic, auquel est contenue l'explication exacte des parties du corps humain: Réduites en tables selon l'ordre de dissection ordinaire, avec l'ostéologie et plusieurs observations particulières. Avec l'osteologie, & plusieurs observations particulieres.
This innovative didactic work divided the study of anatomy into 91 tables, set in type, but without images. It was unusually popular, with eleven editions in the seventeenth century as well as translations into Latin …
1595
#2667
De iis qui morborum simulant deprehendendis liber.
The first treatise on feigned diseases.
1595
#6930
Magni Hippocratis medicorum omnium facile principis, opera omnia quae extant in viii sectiones....
The French humanist physician Foës produced the first Greek & Latin edition of the complete extant works of Hippocrates. His edition was the most significant before that of Littré.
1596
#1594
A new discourse of a stale subject, called the Metamorphosis of Aiax. Written by Misacmos to his friend Philostilpnos.
Harington invented a water-closet in which the disposal of excreta was for the first time controlled by mechanical means. He published several tracts on the device, the first appearing in 1596. These were elegantly re…
1596
#5567
A discourse on the whole art of chyrurgerie.
The first systematic work on the whole subject of surgery written in England. Lowe was the founder of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. This was the first medical organization in Great Britain to incl…
1596
#6144
La commare o riccoglitrice.
First Italian book on obstetrics. It is a work of importance for the study of the history of Caesarean section; in it Mercurio advocated the Caesarean operation in cases of contracted pelvis.
1596
#7117
Reliqua librorum Friderici II. Imperatoris, De arte venandi cum avibus, cum Manfredi Regis additionibus. Ex membranis vetustis nunc primum edita. Albertus Magnus De falconibus, asturibus, & accipitribus.
Books I-II of De arte venandi cum avibus, edited by Marcus Welser from a very old, incomplete defective manuscript, which lacked Books III-IV. More than a dissertation on hunting, this work is considered the first zoo…
1596
#7968
De naturali vinorum historia de vinis Italiae et de conviviis antiquorum libri septem....Accessit de factitiis ac cervisiis de q[ue] Rheni, Galliae, Hispaniae et de totius Europa vinis et de omni vinorum usu compendiaria tractatio.
A comprensive study of the production, storage, characteristics, and use of wines. Book two considers wine in relation to health. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
1596
#12003
Catalogus arborum, fruticum, ac plantarum tam indigenarum, quam exoticarum, in horto Johannis Gerardi civis et chirurgi Londinensis nascentium.
This was the catalogue of John Gerarde's garden at Holborn, where he introduced exotic trees, fruits, and plants from the New World, and also grew widely available English plants. The text was very basic, being essent…
1597
#802
Opusculum physiologum & anatomicum in duos libellos distinctum: In quibus primùm, de integritatis & corruptionis virginum notis, deinde, de grauiditate & partu naturali mulierum in quo ossa pubis & ilium distrahi, dilucidè tractatur ....
In 1595 Pineau demonstrated the vestigial foramen ovale in the adult heart, settling the question of the perviousness of the septum of the heart. His work was first published in 1597. He published this study in a fran…
1597
#437
Anatomica corporis virilis et muliebris historia.
1597
#1820
The herball or generall historie of plantes.
Gerard is perhaps the best remembered of ail the English herbalists. The most important edition of his book is the second, published by T. Johnson in 1633 (reprinted in facsimile, New York, Dover, 1975). Johnson great…
1597
#1718
De vitiis vocis libri duo. In quibus non solum vocis definitio traditur, et explicatur, sed illius differentiae, instrumenta, et causae aperiuntur. Vltimo de vocis conseruatione, praeseruatione, ac vitiorum eius curatione tractatur. Opus ad vtilitatem concionatorum praecipuè editum. Cui accedit consilium de raucedine ac methodus testificandi in quibusuis casibus medicis oblatis, postquam formulae quaedam testationum proponantur.
Codronchi's Methodus testificandi, inquibusvis casibus medicis oblatis first published in the above (pp. 148-232), is considered the earliest significant work on forensic medicine. Digital facsimile from Google Books …
1597
#3244
De vitiis vocis, libri duo.
First treatise devoted solely to diseases of the larynx. (See also No. 1718.)
1597
#5734
De curtorum chirurgia per insitionem.
Tagliacozzi of Bologna became famous for his work on rhinoplasty, but Paré and Fallopius both abused him and his work, and the Church (which regarded such operations as meddling with the work of God) exhumed his body …
1597
#6013
Gynaeciorum sive de mulierum tum communibus, turn gravidarum, parientum, et puerperarum affectibus et morbis, libri Graecorum, Arabum, Latinorum veterum et recentium quotquot extant, parti nunc primum editi, partim vero denuo recogniti, emendati, necessariis imaginibus exornati, & optimorum scriptorum autoritatibus illustrati.
Spach was the editor of this collection of gynecological writings. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
1597
#11381
The garden of health conteyning the sundry rare and hidden vertues and properties of all kindes of simples and plants, together with the maner how they are to be vsed and applyed in medicine for the health of mans body, against diuers diseases and infirmities most common amongst men. Gathered by the long experience and industrie of William Langham, practitioner in phisicke.
An alphabetically arranged handbook of herbal remedies. The title page was misprinted 1579, but the work was actually printed in 1597. A list of the plants discussed is available from Early English Books Online at thi…
1598
#2262
The cures of the diseased, in remote regions. Preventing mortalitie, incident in forraine attempts, of the English nation.
This book is the earliest work in English devoted to tropical medicine. It discusses sunstroke, tabardilla (possibly typhus or yellow fever), prickly heat, dysentery, erysipelas and scurvy. Facsimile reproduction, wit…
1598
#6794
Lexicon medicum Graeco-Latinum…ex Hippocrate et Galeno desumptum.
The earlier lexicon of Gorraeus formed the basis of this work, which was reprinted in several editions, the last in 1792.
1598
#285
Dell’anotomia, et dell’infermità del cavallo.
In 1598 Conte Ottavio Ruini edited and had published in Bologna, with a dedication to Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, Dell'anotomia [sic], et dell'infirmita del cavallo [Book ii: Dell'infirmita del cavallo] by il marche…