1467 MAURUS, Rabanus [Hrabanus; Rhabanus] (780 – 856)
De sermonum proprietate sive Opus de universo.
Also known as De rerum naturis. This dictionary or encyclopedia is the earliest known printed book to include a section dealing with medicine, and this brief section, Book 18, Chap. V concerning medicine and diseases,…
GMN 2190 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/1380
1469 PLINIUS SECUNDUS, Gaius [Pliny the Elder] (23 – 79)
Historia naturalis, libri XXXVII.
The most ancient Western encyclopedia extant, Pliny’s Historia contained essentially all that was known in his time concerning geography, mineralogy, anthropology, botany, zoology and meteorology. Books XX-XXXII deal …
GMN 89 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/51
1471 BARTHOLOMAEUS ANGLICUS (1203 – 1272)
De proprietatibus rerum.
A condensed encyclopedia of what was then understood by natural science. The work was probably written about the middle of the 13th century. It was one of the most widely read scientific works of the Middle Ages. Caxt…
GMN 91 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/52
1472 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE, (Isidorus Hispalensis) (570 – 636)
Etymologiae.
The principal work of Isidore of Seville, one of the greatest educationists of the Middle Ages. The Etymologiae, an encyclopedic work, presented the sum of contemporary knowledge on all branches of science. Book IV af…
GMN 6787 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8424
1475 DONDI, Jacopo de' [Jacopo Dondi dell'Orologio] (1290 – 1359)
Aggregator, sive de medicinis simplicibus.
First printed edition of an encyclopedic dictionary of medicine, containing a large number of medical recipes based upon Greek and Arabic sources. Dondi completed the work in 1355. Manuscripts of his text are preserve…
GMN 6789 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8428
1486 RHAZES [MUHAMMAD IBN ZAKARIYĀ AL-RĀZĪ (PERSIAN: محمد زکریای رازی ] (854 – 925); FERAGIUS SALERNITANUS; BUGATUS, Joannes
Rhazes: Liber Elhavi sive Ars medicinae. Translated by Feragius Salernitanus. Edited by Joannes Bugatus.
The Al-Hawi, or Continens, a great encyclopedia of medicine. The above first Latin translation by Feragius Salernitanus is the largest and heaviest of the medical incunabula. The original manuscript was in Arabic. IST…
GMN 40 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8762
c. 1496 BARTHOLOMAEUS ANGLICUS (1203 – 1272); TREVISA, John (John of Trevisa) (1342 – 1402)
De proprietatibus rerum. English translation by John of Trevisa.
This English translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus was made by John of Trevisa in 1398. Bibliographically it is of interest as being one of the earliest books printed in London, one of the finest of the 15th century, …
GMN 92 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8784
1519 ABULCASIS (ABU AL-QASIM KHALAF IBN AL-ABBAS AL-ZAHRAWI; أبو القاسم خلف بن العباس الزهراوي), [Albucasis] (936 – 1013)
Liber theoricae nec non practicae Alsaharavii.
This is the first printing of the medical and therapeutic section of Abul Qasim’s medical encyclopedia or al-Tasrif. It contains what is probably the earliest description of hemophilia (fol. 145). Digital facsimile fr…
GMN 3048 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3653
1530 RUEL, Jean (Ruelle; Ioannes Ruellius) (1474 – 1537)
Veterinariae medicina libri II Johanne Ruellio Suessionensi interprete. [Hippiatrika].
Ruel, a native of Soissons, was physician to François I. This book, commissioned by the king, was a Latin translation of a collection of excerpts from Greek veterinary writers on equine disease, compiled circa 900 CE:…
GMN 7197 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9364
1538 SETH, Simeon (Simeo Sethus; Συμεὼν Μάγιστρος Ἀντιοχείας τοῦ Σήθι, (1050 – ); GIRALDI, Giglio Gregorio (1479 – 1552)
Simeonis Sethi, magistri Antiochiae, Syntagma per literarum ordinem de cibariorum facultate, Lilio Gregorio Gyraldo,... interprete.
First printed edition of Seth's Byzantine encyclopedia of foods, nutrition, and diatetics from plants and animals, with Greek text and Latin translation by scholar and poet Giglio Gregorio Giraldi. Simeon Seth was an …
GMN 6969 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9134
1566 WOLFF, Caspar [WOLF] (1525 – 1601)
Gynaeciorum, hoc est, de mulierum turn aliis, tum gravidarum, parientium et puerperarum affectibus et morbis, libri veterum ac recentiorum aliquot, partim nunc primum editi, partim multo quam antea castigatiores.
The first encyclopedia of gynecology and obstetrics, originally conceived by Conrad Gesner, who collected material for the purpose. Wolff, Gesner’s literary executor, added material and published the collection one ye…
GMN 6011 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7193
1599 –1667 ALDROVANDI, Ulisse [ALDROVANDUS] (1522 – 1605)
Opera omnia. 13 vols.
Aldrovandi, first director of the botanical garden at Bologna, was a prolific writer. Some of his writings made their first appearance in print after his death. He designed them as a whole to form an enormous illustra…
GMN 290 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8831
1621 BURTON, Robert (1577 – 1640)
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…
GMN 4918.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6080
1686 RAY, John (1628 – 1705); WILLUGHBY, Francis (Willoughby) (1635 – 1672)
De historia piscium libri quatuor.
A large folio volume with 187 engraved plates considered the first modern encyclopedia on fish, this was largely the work of John Ray, prepared and expanded from Willougby's notes, more than a decade after his death. …
GMN 7088 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9255
1708 COHN, Tobias ben Moses [COHEN] (1652 – 1729)
Ma’aseh Tuviyyah [Works of Tobias]…Hebrew text.
The only significantly illustrated early book on medicine in Hebrew. This is an encyclopedia, of which approximately half concerns medicine. One of the first Jews from the Eastern ghetto to obtain a medical education …
GMN 6496.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8027
1812 –1822 SOCIÉTÉ DE MÉDECINS ET DE CHIRURGIENS
Dictionnaire des sciences médicales par un Société de médecins et de chirurgiens. 60 vols.
GMN 2208 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/1659
1816 –1830 CUVIER, Georges-Frédéric "Frédéric" (1773 – 1838)
Dictionnaire des sciences naturelles, dans lequel on traite méthodiquement des différens êtres de la nature, considérés soit en eux-mêmes, d'après l'état actuel de nos connoissances, soit relativement à l'utilité qu'en peuvent retirer la médecine, l'agriculture, le commerce et les artes. Suivi d'une biographie des plus célèbres naturalistes....Par plusieurs professeurs du Jardin du Roi, et des principales écoles de Paris. 60 vols. "M. F. Cuvier est chargé de la direction générale de l'ouvrage."
"M. F. Cuvier est chargé de la direction générale de l'ouvrage." Digital facsimile from commons.wikipedia.org at this link.
GMN 13375 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15646
1824 WATT, Robert (1774 – 1819)
Bibliotheca Britannica, or, A general index to British and foreign literature. 4 vols.
This bio-bibliographical encyclopedia of English and foreign literature includes many articles on physicians from the ancient world up to Watt's time, and is an extraordinary achievement for one man. Typically the fir…
GMN 8410 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10587
1832 –1854
Encyclographie des sciences médicales. Réimpression générale des ouvrages periodiques sur ces sciences, publies en France.
From 1845 to 1854 this enigmatically titled work was pubished under the title, Nouvelle encyclographie des sciences médicales. Rather than an encyclopedia, it was a series of reprints of books and periodicals to which…
GMN 12745 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14991
1835 –1859 SHARPEY, William (1802 – 1880); TODD, Robert Bentley (1809 – 1860)
The cyclopaedia of anatomy and physiology. Edited by Robert Bentley Todd. 5 vols.
Contributors included Richard Owen and Thomas Huxley, and physicians James Paget, James Young Simpson, and William Bowman.The discoveries of Purkynĕ and Valentin, together with additional observations by William Sharp…
GMN 603 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/453
1865 –1889 DECHAMBRE, Amedée (1812 – 1886)
Dictionnaire encyclopédique des sciences médicales. Directeur: A. Dechambre. 100 vols.
A massive encyclopedia based on historical principles, written by the leading authorities, and with detailed bibliographical references. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.
GMN 8071 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10247
1874 –1879 ALLEN, Timothy Field (1837 – 1902)
The encyclopedia of pure materia medica. A record of the positive of effects of drugs upon the healthy human organism. 10 vols.
With contributions by Richard Hughes of England; Constantine Hering of Philadelphia; Carroll Dunham of New York; Adolph Lippe of Philadelphia and others. This massive work is almost a complete record of all provings a…
GMN 6854 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9018
1877 –1883 LECLERC, Lucien (1816 – 1893); IBN AL-BAYTĀR AL-MĀLAQĪ, Ḍiyāʾ Al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdllāh Ibn Aḥmad (Ibn al-Baytar) (1197 – 1248)
Traité des simples. 3 vols. Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque nationale et autres bibliothèques, 1877, tome 23,1; tome 25,1; tome 26,1. Traduit par Lucien Leclerc.
Ibn al-Baytar systematically recorded the additions to pharmacy made by medieval Islamic physicians, who added between 300 and 400 types of medicines to the roughly one thousand known since antiquity. "Ibn al-Baitar’s…
GMN 8528 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10705
1885 –1886 PEPPER, William Jr. (1843 – 1898)
A system of medicine. Edited by William Pepper. 5 vols.
"The most comprehensive 19th century American work on medicine. Pepper assembled virtually all of the leading American physicians of the day, including D. Hayes Agnew, Roberts Bartholow, John Shaw Billings, William By…
GMN 11636 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13837
1901 JOLLY, Julius (1849 – 1932)
Medicin. Grundriss der Indo-Arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde.(Encyclopedia of Indo-Aryan Research). III. Band, 10. Heft.
Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
GMN 6486.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7981
1906 BLOCH, Iwan (Ivan) (1872 – 1922)
Das Sexualleben unserer Zeit in seinen Beziehungen zur modernen Kultur.
An encyclopedia of the sexual sciences. English translation by M. Eden Paul from the sixth German edition as The sexual life of our time in its relations to modern civilization (1909). Digital facsimile of the 1907 Ge…
GMN 7199 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9366
1911 HARTWICH, Carl (1851 – 1917)
Die menschlichen Genussmittel. Ihre Herkunft, Verbreitung, Geschichte, Anwendung, Bestandteile und Wirkung.
A monumental encyclopedia of ethnopharmacology.
GMN 1901.2 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2648
1923 MARCUSE, Max (1877 – 1963)
Handwörterbuch der Sexualwissenschaft. Enzyklopädie der natur- und kulturwissenschaftlichen Sexualkunde des Menschen heraugegeben von Max Marcuse.
Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. New edition with an introduction by Robert Jütte, Berlin & New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2001.
GMN 12994 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15243
1928 SIDDĪQĪ, Muhammad Zubair; IBN SAHL RABBAN AL-TABARI, Abu al-Hasan Ali (علی ابن سهل ربان طبری ) (838 – 870)
Firdausu'l-Hikmat or Paradise of wisdom. Edited by M. Z. Siddiqi.
Firdous al-Hikmah is one of the oldest encyclopedias of Islamic medicine, based on Syriac translations of Greek sources (Hippocrates, Galen Dioscorides, and others). It is divided into 7 sections and 30 parts, with 36…
GMN 8326 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10502
1936 ROBINSON, Victor (1866 – 1947)
Encyclopaedia sexualis: A comprehensive encyclopaedia-dictionary of the sexual sciences. Edited by Victor Robinson.
One of the first encyclopedias of sexuality, published when relevant information was difficult to obtain, especially in English.
GMN 7035 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9202
1961 ELLIS, Albert (1913 – 2007); ABARBANEL, Albert Brandt (1912 – )
The encyclopedia of sexual behavior.
GMN 7200 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9367
1964 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE, (Isidorus Hispalensis) (570 – 636); SHARPE, William D. (1927 – 2016)
Isidore of Seville: The medical writings. An English translation with an introduction and commentary by William D. Sharpe.
Translation of the medical and anatomical portions of the Etymologiae. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
GMN 8361 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10537
1975 –1988 BARTHOLOMAEUS ANGLICUS (1203 – 1272); TREVISA, John (John of Trevisa) (1342 – 1402); SEYMOUR, M. C.; LIEGEY, Gabriel M.
On the properties of things: John Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus De proprietatibus rerum: A critical text, edited by M. C. Seymour and Gabriel M. Liegey. 3 vols.
See also M. C. Seymour et alii, Bartholomaeus Anglicus and his encyclopedia (Aldershot, England: Variorum, 1992).
GMN 8576 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10753
1979 SITTIG, Marshall
Pharmaceutical manufacturing encyclopedia.
"Descriptions of 673 major pharmaceuticals, information having been obtained from the patent literature. Alphabetical arrangement by generic names. Each entry gives therapeutic function; chemical, common, and trade na…
GMN 13697 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15979
1986 WALTON, Sir John Nicholas (1922 – 2016); BEESON, Paul Bruce (1908 – 2006); SCOTT, Sir Ronald Bodley (1906 – 1982)
The Oxford companion to medicine. 2 vols.
A dictionary, biographical dictionary, and encyclopedia covering selected aspects of the theory, practice and profession of medicine, including history, by the editors and 150 notable contributors. Produced in the sty…
GMN 6810 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8466
1988 WEBSTER, John G.
Encyclopedia of medical devices and instrumentation. 4 vols
Some of the articles in this work include historical references, useful for the recent history of this rapidly evolving field.
GMN 2682.56 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/4157
1990 DYNES, Wayne R. (1934 – ); PERCY, William Armstrong III (1933 – ); JOHANSSON, Warren (1934 – 1994); DONALDSON, Stephen (1946 – 1996)
Encyclopedia of Homosexuality. Edited by Wayne R. Dynes. Associate editors: Stephen Donaldson, Warren Johansson, and William A. Percy. 2 vols.
GMN 11448 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13647
1993 PORTER, Roy Sydney (1946 – 2002); BYNUM, William F. (1943 – )
Companion encyclopedia of the history of medicine. Edited by W. F. Bynum and Roy Porter. 2 vols.
GMN 9448 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11631
1994 BULLOUGH, Vern Leroy (1928 – 2006); BULLOUGH, Bonnie (1927 – 1996)
Human sexuality: An encyclopedia, edited by Vern L. Bullough and Bonnie Bullough.
GMN 7201 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9368
1996 LYON, William S.
Encyclopedia of native American healing.
GMN 7002 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9168
1997 SPENCER, Frank (1941 – 1999)
History of physical anthropology: An encyclopedia edited by Frank Spencer. 2 vols.
GMN 6978 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9144
1997 SELIN, Helaine (1946 – )
Encyclopaedia of the history of science, technology, and medicine in non-Western cultures. Edited by Helaine Selin.
Second edition, significantly revised and expanded, 2016.
GMN 9457 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11640
1998 AUFDERHEIDE, Arthur C. (1922 – 2013); RODRÍGUEZ-MARTÍN, Conrado; LANGSJOEN, Odin Monro (1923 – 2008)
The Cambridge encyclopedia of human paleopathology by Arthur C. Auderheide and Conrado Rodríguez-Martín, including a dental chapter by Odin Langsjoen.
Includes a significant historical introduction.
GMN 7701 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9873
1998 MAIMONIDES, (Moses ben Maimon; מֹשֶׁה בֶּן־מַימוֹן; Mōšeh bēn-Maymōn; موسى بن ميمون Mūsā bin Maymūn) (1135 – 1204); ROSNER, Fred (1931 – )
Medical encyclopedia of Moses Maimonides by Fred Rosner.
GMN 8265 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10441
1998 –2014 SCAIFE, Ross (1960 – 2008)
Suda On Line: Byzantine lexicography.
http://www.stoa.org/sol/ "In 1998 the Stoa Consortium for Electronic Publication in the Humanities organized by Ross Scaife sponsored the online collaborative annotated first English translation of the massive Byzanti…
GMN 9834 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12022
2001 WIKIPEDIA
The Wikipedia.
https://www.icrc.org/en/who-we-are/history When I posted this in December 2016 there were over 5,300,000 entries just in the English language Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Though, of course, the q…
GMN 8167 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10343
2001 HOWARTH, Glennys (1954 – ); LEAMAN, Oliver (1950 – )
Encylopedia of death and dying. Edited by Glennys Howarth and Oliver Leaman.
GMN 12071 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14280
2002 WINDSOR, Laura Lynn (1959 – )
Women in medicine: An encyclopedia.
GMN 13828 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/16118
2003 QUIGLEY, Christine (1963 – )
Conjoined twins: An historical, biological and ethical issues encyclopedia.
GMN 10709 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12903
2005 WALLIS, Faith; GLICK, Thomas F. (1939 – ); LIVESEY, Stephen J.
Medieval science, technology, and medicine: An encyclopedia. Edited by Thomas Glick, Steven J. Livesey, and Faith Wallis.
GMN 8488 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10665
