In this short treatise on balneotherapy physician, humanist , and prolific writer Georg Pictorius described 38 different bathing facilities. Digital facsimile from Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link

Observationes anatomicae, a work of 232 leaves printed in the comparatively small octavo format, with no illustrations, was the only work Fallopio published before his death from tuberculosis at age thirty-nine, and is thus the only one that can be said to be fully authentic. The remainder of Falloppio's works were edited for publication from his lecture notes, and may represent more or less than the author's original intention. Observationes was not an all-inclusive textbook of anatomy but rather a detailed critical commentary on Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica (1543), in which Falloppio attempted to correct errors in the earlier work, and to add material that Vesalius had overlooked; for this reason, there was no need for illustrations. The large amount of new material included Falloppio's investigations of primary and secondary centers of ossification, the first clear description of primary dentition, numerous contributions to the study of the muscles (especially those of the head), and the famous account of the uterine ("Falloppian") tubes, which he correctly described as resembling small trumpets (tubae), definitely proved the existence of the seminal vesicles. He also gave to the placenta and vagina their present scientific names, provided a superior description of the auditory apparatus (including the first clear accounts of the chorda tympani and semicircular canals), and was the first to clearly distinguish the trochlear nerve of the eye. Vesalius responded positively to Falloppio's work with his posthumously published Examen on Falloppio (1564).

For further details see the entry in HistoryofInformation.com at this link.

Anguillara was one of the best of many commentators on Dioscorides. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

This work not only updated the species listed by Dioscorides, but also listed about 500 new species of plants. Published posthumously, the work was carefully edited by Conrad Gesner.  

Cordus was the inventor of phytography and the discoverer of ethyl (sulphuric) ether. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Greatly expanded second edition, including Franco's operations for cataract and urinary calculi. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

Written after the death of Paré’s patient, Henri II, who was struck in the eye by the shaft of a lance at a tournament in celebration of the marriage of Philip, King of Spain, with Elizabeth of France. Paré discusses surgery of head wounds with special attention to skull fractures. Digital facsimile from BIU Santé at this link.

One of the earliest self-help medical guides, written by a pupil of Vesalius. Translated into English by Thomas Newton as The touchstone of complexions generallye appliable, expedient and profitable for all such, as be desirous & carefull of their bodylye health: Contayning most easie rules & ready tokens, whereby euery one may perfectly try, and throughly know, as well the exacte state, habite, disposition, and constitution, of his owne body outwardly : as also the inclinations, affections, motions, & desires of his mynd inwardly / first written in Latine, by Leuine Lemnie (London,1576). Digital facsimile of the 1561 edition from Google Books at this link. The English text is available from Early English Books Online at this link.

Foes is credited with coining the word pharmacopeia in the title of this work. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Paracelsus has been called by some “the pioneer of modern chemists” and by others “uncouth, boorish, vain, ignorant and pretentious”. His De gradibus contains most of his innovations in Chemical therapeutics. A definitive edition of the Works of Paracelsus was published by Karl Sudhoff. See No. 57.

Prologomena in Galenum, in tres partes divisa written by physician, naturalist, and bibliographer, Conrad Gessner (Gesner), and issued in volume one of Cl [audius] Galeni Pergameni  [Opera] Omnia, quae extant, in Latinum sermonem convers published in Basel by Hieronymus Froben and Nicolaus Episcopius in 1562, was the first bio-bibliography. Gessner's study, which covered Greek editions, Latin editions, lost works, writers on Galen and a classified bibliography of Galen's writings, was also Gessner's most developed bibliography. The bio-bibliography occupies 37 unnumbered leaves, following the title to volume 1, and Gesner's two unnumbered leaves of dedication, dated February 1562. (α†^4-6,β†⁶, γ†⁶, A†-C†⁶, D†⁴). To the extent that this is a bio-bibliography we might call it an early partial biography, in that it incorporates what little is known of Galen's life.

Besterman, Beginnings of Systematic Bibliography 2nd ed (1940) 19-20, no. XXIX.

A comprehensive manual by a physician on female hygiene, beauty and adornment, containing hundreds of recommendations, advice on cosmetics, and more than two dozen recipes for dyes to bleach hair blond. Marinello recommended a nightly application of a herbal infusion to improve the effects of aging. Marinello has been called "the founder of modern cosmetology." Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

A work of medical humanism written while Bullein and his wife were in prison for debts. Bullein was the only writer of medical works in English in the sixteenth century to employ the dialogue form, allowing the physician as counsellor to engage in ‘political digression and autobiographical anecdote’ alongside the medical content (Withington). Bullein has also been called the first English writer on the history of medicine.

Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

Eustachius is credited with several anatomical discoveries, among them the tensor tympani muscle and the Eustachian tube, published in his chapter entitled De auditus organis. In the last respect, however, he was anticipated by Alcmaeon, about 500 BCE. Eustachius was the first to describe the chorda tympani as a nerve. Plate VIII illustrates the “Eustachian valve”, the valvula venae cavae in the right auricle. Eustachius recognized the thoracic duct in the horse and even detected some of its valves. His work on this structure was forgotten until Aselli’s description of the lacteals. This work includes first description of the adrenals. Several of the plates deal with the structure of the kidney.

Basing his work on the dissection of fetuses and newborn children, Eustachi was the first to study the teeth in any considerable detail. In his Libellus de dentibus attached to this work he provided an important description of the first and second dentitions and described the hard outer tissue and soft inner structure of the teeth. He also attempted an explanation of the problem of the sensitivity of the tooth’s hard structure. The Libellus has a separate title page dated 1563. It was reprinted with German translation, Wien, Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1951. It was translated into English by Joan H. Thomas and edited and introduced by David A. Chernin and Gerald Shlklar as as A little treatise on the teeth. The first authoritative book on dentistry (1563) (Canton, MA, 1999). Eustachi’s illustrations of the teeth were first published in his Tabulae anatomicae, edited by Giovanni Maria Lancisi (No. 391). For further information, including a discussion of the states of the Opuscula, see the entry at HistoryofInformation.com at this link.

Digital facsimile of the 1563 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first account of Indian materia medica and the first textbook on tropical medicine written by a European. It includes a classic account of Asiatic cholera, the first account of this disease by a European. This is the second book known to have been printed in India, of which copies survive. Garcia de Orta sailed for India in 1534 as Chief Physician aboard the armada of the Viceroy Martim Afonso de Sousa. He worked and carried out his research at Goa, where he died in 1568. His book was first printed by João de Endem at his press in St. John's College, Goa, and completed on April 10, 1563. For an account of its author, see L. H. Roddis, Ann. med. Hist., 1929, 1, 198-207. Digital facsimile of the 1563 edition from Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal at this link. 

Gale, a contemporary of Paré, was surgeon in Henry VIII’s army at Montreuil. His book supported the views of Paré regarding the treatment of gunshot wounds, denying the poisonous effect of bullets; Gale, however, applied messy and complicated unguents to wounds, doing more harm than good. Forms part 3 of his Certaine workes of chirurgerie (No. 2371).

Falloppius was one of the first prominent opponents of the use of mercury in syphilis. He distinguished syphilitic and non-syphilitic condylomata.

Includes the first mention of syphilis in the English literature. Facsimile reprint, New York, Da Capo Press, 1971.

Weyer was the first European physician to take an empirical, scientific approach to the study of mental illness. At the height of the witchcraft delusion he argued that witches were mentally ill women who deserved humane treatment instead of torture and punishment. Weyer “reduced the clinical problems of psychopathology to simple terms of everyday life and everyday, human, inner experiences” (Zilboorg). English translation by John Shea as Witches, devils, and doctors in the Renaissance. Johann Weyer, De praestigiis daemonum. Foreward by John Weber. Bingham, New York: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1991.

Würtz was a friend of Gessner and an admirer of Paracelsus; his book went through many editions and was translated into English, French, and Dutch. It describes the treatment of gunshot wounds, fractures, and dislocations, but does not include operative surgery.

Würtz left an unpublished work on pediatrics that was first published by his brother Rudolf in an expanded edition of Practica der Wundartzney, Basel: Sebastian Henripetri, 1612. This work was traditionally considered the first work on pediatric surgery; however, Würtz did not describe any operations—only splinting and bandaging of deformed limbs. English translation, London, 1656, which was reprinted in J. Ruhräh's Pediatrics of the Past (1925). Digital facsimile of the Basel, 1596 edition from Google Books at this link. Digital facsimile of the Basel, 1612 edition from the Internet Archive at this link. 

According to Charles Singer, Aranzi gave the first adequate printed account of the gravid uterus, and finally dispelled the idea of a human cotyledonous placenta. He gave by far the best description of fetal anatomy up to that time, especially examining the fetal heart, where he saw the ductus arteriosus and foramen ovale (and described their occlusion after birth). Aranzi believed the maternal and fetal circulations to be separate. He also described the ductus venosus of the fetus, and the corpora Arantii in the heart valves. Incidentally, he was the first to record a pelvic deformity. Digital facsimile of the Leiden, 1564 edition from Google Books at this link.

One of the earliest pharmacopeias, and one which exerted a great influence on later pharmacopeias. Several new editions followed the first, and that of 1613 was adopted as the official pharmacopeia of Augsburg, the famous Pharmacopoeia Augustana. Occo, the third of a famous medical family, was town physician of Augsburg. The book was reprinted in facsimile, with notes, edited by T. Husemann, by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, (1927). Digital facsimile of the 1564 edition from Google Books at this link.

Summer catarrh (hay fever) first described. Partial English translation in No. 2241.

Jean de Joinville was probably the first, about 1250, to describe scurvy; Vasco da Gama noted its occurrence at sea, and Jacques Cartier mentioned it. Ronsse gave an early medical account describing how sailors cured themselves by eating oranges and lemons as soon as they reached the coast of Spain. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Paré’s first general treatise on surgery, and the most comprehensive of his treatises before his collected works (1575). Dix livres included Paré's first description of the use of the ligature in amputations, one of his greatest contributions. Paré began the work with an exposition of his method of treating gunshot wounds, including descriptions and illustrations of the instruments he used. In his second chapter he discussed the treatment of arrow wounds, reminding us that arrows were still a major weapon of war in the 16th century. In his third chapter he discussed his methods of treating fractures, and the instruments, splints, and bandaging methods required. His fourth book covered the treatment of contusions, and the use of many instruments. His fifth book concerned the treatment of burns. The sixth book concerned what he called  "caries of the bones" which caused ulceration and putrefaction. These wounds he often treated with cautery. The seventh book concerned gangrene and "mortification," their treatment by amputation, and prostheses which Paré designed for these patients, including artificial legs and artificial hands. In his eighth book Paré discussed urological diseases including surgery for urinary stricture The ninth book concerned surgery for kidney and bladder stones. The tenth book further discussed urological problems, followed by a long section in which Paré illustrated and described the widest range of his instruments and the uses for each.

Paré also had an extensive dental practice and his books contain much information on the subject. He designed several instruments for extracting teeth, including an extraction forceps for breaking and pulling the teeth, sponge obturators, and an obturator with screw closure and special forceps for placement. He described a variety of pelican which he called a daviet. He also described and illustrated artificial teeth made of bone which he attached by silver wire. English translation as Ten books of surgery with the magazine of the instruments necessary for it. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1969. See No. 55. Digital facsimile of the 1575 edition from BnF Gallica at this link

This valuable Greek-Latin dictionary for the ancient medical writers defined and fixed a large number of anatomical terms, and exercised considerable influence on modern anatomical terminology. It was an important aid to the full understanding of the ancient texts.

This dictionary arranges all Greek medical terms in order of the Greek alphabet, and carefully explains them in Latin. It was widely used, and exerted much influence on modern medical terminology.

The first treatise on Central and South American medicinal plants, and for many years the most important work on the medicinal plants of the New World. Working from Seville, Spanish doctor Nicolás Monardes managed to compile an impressive catalogue of New World medicinal plants. He bought specimens from merchants and sailors, grew some of them at his own garden, performed therapeutic experiments on his patients, and interviewed many travelers to obtain information about the uses of the plants among American natives. 

A second part to the book appeared in 1569: Dos libros, el uno que trata de todas las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias Occidentales, que sirven al uso de la medicina, y el otro que trata de la piedra bezaar, y de la yerva escuerçonera. (Seville: Hernando Diaz).

In 1574 a third part together with the first two, was issued: Primera y segunda y tercera partes de la historia medicinal de las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias Occidentales, que sirven en medicina; Tratado de la piedra bezaar, y dela yerva escuerçonera; Dialogo de las grandezas del hierro, y de sus virtudes medicinales; Tratado de la nieve, y del beuer frio. (Seville: Alonso Escrivano).

English translation by John Frampton from the 1565 edition: Joyfull newes out of the newe found world, wherein is declared the rare and singular vertues of diuerse and sundrie hearbes, trees, oyles, plantes, and stones, with their applications, as well for phisicke as chirurgerie (London, 1577). A revised edition of Frampton's translation appeared in 1580, incorporating material from Monardes's 1574 edition. This translation was reprinted in 1925, edited by Stephen Gaselee. 

Digital facsimile of the 1565 edition from the Internet Archive at this link;  of the 1569 edition at this link. Digital facsimile of the 1580 English translation from Google Books at this link.

The first French work on pediatrics. Vallambert considered a wider range of diseases than any previous writer, including the first reference to syphilis in children, and gave the best commentary up to his time on infant feeding, including the first mention of baby-feeding apparatus. Digital facsimile from Gallica, BnF at this link.

The first treatise to specifically on urinary calculi and gallstones, with each of the 12 chapters exploring a part of the human body where such stones are found (gall bladder, kidneys, bladder, etc.). Additionally, the work discusses various non-digestible objects ingested by people. This work was also published in Conrad Gesner's collection, De omni rerum fossilium (1565). Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

A collection of eight separate tracts, most with their own title page, by seven authors, all edited, and some with commentary by Gesner. The work is relevant for the history of "natural history" for containing Kentmann's Catalogus, the earliest printed catalogue of a mineral collection. This was probably also the earliest printed catalogue of any private collection in natural history. Though Kentmann's collection may have existed only in a cabinet, and was not formally a museum, because of the very early date, I think it is worthwhile to include his collection in this bibliography.

Supposedly Kentmann's catalogue was also published separately, but because no copies appear to exist with their own title page, I suspect that separate publication was doubtful. On the other hand, Kentmann's catalogue of calculi (No. 11489) was clearly issued with its own title page, and was thus probably available both in Gesner's collection and as a separate work.

Curtis Schuh's online Biobibliography of Minerology has this to say about Kentmann's minerology catalogue:

Catalogus rerum fossilium Io. Kentmani numerous folii puncto praeeunte, faciem priorem indcat:sequente, posteriorem. 

"This early catalog describes the "fossils" or "things dug from the earth" collected by Johannes Kentmann. Although some petrified remains of animal and plants are included in the descriptions, it is essentially a portrait of a fifteenth century mineral collection. This treatise is therefore the earliest work to catalog mineralogical items in their own right.

"The text gives a detailed inventory of 1,608 individual specimens, with an unusual feature for the period of providing accurate locality information for each sample described. As would be expected, over 1,100 of the specimens originated from the region around Saxony where Kentmann flourished. Yet a suprising aspect are the 472 specimens described as having come from foreign lands. This indicates the vigor and great expense Kentmann used to acquire material for his ever growing collection. Unfortunately, none of the specimens was illustrated. However, a major novelty of the work was a woodcut illustration of the actual mineral cabinet used to store the collection. The picture shows thirteen drawers that were used to segragate the specimens. This closely follows the method of classification outlined in the text.

"The system devised by the author is based principally on the work of Georg Agricola, but modified and enlarged upon Gesner's insistance. It consists of twenty-six major divisions with headings such as earths, stones, flourites, hard-bodied minerals, marbles, ores of gold, silver, copper and lead, pyrites, antimony, iron, etc. Each division was then subdivided according to the kind of species. For example, this separation included male and female loadstone, which respectively, attracted or repeled iron particles. A good modern translation and analysis of Kentmann's work is provided in Prescher, H., J. Helm and G. Fraustadt, "Johannes Kentmanns Mineralienkatalog, aus dem Jahre 1565," Abhandlungen des Staatlichen Museums für Mineralogie und Geologie zu Dresden, 30 (1980), 5-152."

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

 (Thanks to Arnaud Mignan, medium.com, for drawing my attention to this work.)

On the medical sues of wine.  Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

A collection of important writings on syphilis to 1500. Boerhaave published a revision of this work in 1728, covering the period 1495-1566.

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 year after Gesner’s death. It contains the first edition of Moschion (No. 6136). Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The earliest text specifically for midwives, based on the teachings of Soranus, the greatest obstetrical writer of antiquity. Muscio was a pupil of Soranus. His book, the earliest copy of which is a manuscript dating from circa 900 CE preserved in the Royal Library of Brussels (Brussels MS 3714), is arranged in catechism form; it was first published as above and in Caspar Wolff’s Gynaeciorum, 1566 (No. 6011). A Greek–Latin bilingual text was edited by F. O Dewez, Vienna, 1793. Until the 19th century Moschion was lauded as the greatest obstetrical writer of antiquity while Soranus’s works remained hidden. See V. Rose, Sorani Gynaeciorum vetus translatio latina, Leipzig, 1882, No. 12200.

Securis was a Latinized version of the English surname Hatchett.

First edition in Latin edited by Eustachi of the glossary to Hippocrates by the first century Greek grammarian Erotianus. Erotianus's work contains the earliest list of the writings of Hippocrates, including some now lost. The Greek text alone had been printed as part of Henri Estienne's Dictionarium Medicum (1564). Eustachi based his Latin translation, accompanied by many passages in the original Greek, on a Greek manuscript in the Vatican library that was independent of Estienne's edition.
To Erotianus text Eustachi added an exhaustive commentary based on the Greek text, which it cites in the original. In addition he added in an ppendix (ff. 128-152) the first edition of his original tract De multitudine, describing the symptoms of plethora (i.e., an excess of a bodily fluid, particularly blood).

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Paracelsus’s book on the diseases of miners was the first full monograph on the diseases of an occupational group. The first section covers the diseases, mainly pulmonary affections, of miners, including the etiology, pathogenesis, symptomatology and therapy. The second book describes the diseases of smelter workers and metallurgists, and the third section discusses diseases caused by mercury. English translation by G. Rosen in Four treatises of Theophrastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus, ed. by H. E. Sigerist, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1941. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

In this work on the “diseases that deprive man of his reason” Paracelsus anticipated the descriptive method in psychiatry, giving a purely medical account of the clinical manifestations of epilepsy, mania, and hysteria refuting previous theories that these diseases were caused by demonic possession or other supernatural means. He was “the first to differentiate the sexual components and the unconcious factors in the development ol hysteria” (Zilboorg). English translation by G. Zilboorg in H.E. Sigerist (ed.), Four treatises of…Paracelsus, Baltimore, 1941.

This collection of Roman, Late Antique, and Byzantine medical works, written after Hippocrates and Galen, was edited and published by Henri Estienne. The unusually worded title page states that it contains Latin translations of works by Aretaeus, Rufus of Ephesus, Oribasius, Paul of Aegina, Aetius, Alexander of Tralles, and other works including Actuarius, and Nic. Myrepsus. It also contains the Latin texts of Celsus, Scribonius Largus, Marcellus Empricus, Oribasius, Sextus Philosophicus, Aetius, Philaretus, Theophilus, Actuarius Zach. fil., Nicholaus Myrepsus Alexandrinus, Celsus, Scribonius Largus, Marcellus Empiricus, Quintus Serenus Samonicus.

Digital facsimile of Sudhoff's copy from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link. On the title page of that copy an early reader added page references to the various texts, and also wrote in the names of various other authors not mentioned on the title page by Estienne, including Demetrios Pepagomenos, whose work on gout appeared here for the first time.

Arias de Benevides travelled to the New World where he observed native remedies and reported them in this book. In the book he also described his performance in Mexico City (1561) of the first neurosurgical intervention on the North American continent, in which he operated on a 13-year-old boy who had sustained head trauma that caused an open depressed cranial facture and exposed the cerebrum.

This Byzantine treatise on gout underwent several editions between the 16th and 18th centuries. The translator Musurus worked with Aldus Manutius in the preparation of several editiones principes. The translation, for which the date of 1517 is usually assigned, was first published in the anthology of medical works written after Hippocrates and Galen issued by Henri Estienne in 1567. (No. 55). From the way Estienne stated the title, it appears that he was uncertain regarding authorship of the text. Digital facsimile of the 1567 work from Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

Vesalius’s consilium to Ingrassia, dated Madrid, 1562, in which he clearly described the operation for empyema (pp. 92-98). Although treatment of empyema by surgery was referred to in classical times, it became unfashionable, and Vesalius seems to have been the first to revive the actual use of surgery for this illness. English translation in O’Malley, Andreas Vesalius of Brussels, Berkeley, Univ. of California Press, 1965, pp.398-402.

Nonnus, a Byzantine physician, wrote an outline of medicine dedicated to Emperor Constantine Prophyrogenitus (probably Constantine VII). Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Grévin's work "marks the beginning of a new era in biotoxinological studies. With Grévin we see a crude attempt being made to compile systematically and evaluate the total knowledge of toxic organisms which had accrued to that time. He provided the foundation and the historical departure point from which subsequent researchers began their investigations" (Halstead, Poisonous and venomous marin animals of the world I, 37). Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

A history, based on extensive study of the classical literature, of the attitudes and practices of the Greeks and Romans concerning diet, hygiene, bathing, and exercise. This is one of the earliest books to discuss the therapeutic value of gymnastics and sports generally for the cure of disease and disability, and an important study of gymnastics in the ancient world. 

The second edition, De arte gymnastica libri sex, Venice, Juntas, 1573, was the first illustrated book on gymnastics. It contains 20 unsigned woodcuts usually attributed to Christoph Lederer of Nuremberg, who assumed the name of Coriolanus after moving to Italy. These illustrations drawn by Pirro Ligorio "can now be shown to be the result of imaginative reconstruction, or straightforward forgery...unknown to his [Mercuriale's] readers, who assumed that images confirmed the truth of what Mercuriale had deduced from the evidence of texts.... The argument and illustrations in De arte gymnastica demonstrated the prime place of gymnastics in Greece and Rome, and later, convinced Winckelmann of the importance of nudity in Greek civilization and art" (Vivian Nutton, "Mercurale, Girolamo", Grafton et al (eds.), The classical tradition [2010] pp. 582-83.) Digital facsimile of the 1573 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Daléchamp, a pupil of Guillaume Rondelet, received his doctorate in medicine from the University of Montpellier in 1547; he settled in Lyons in 1552, where he remained for the rest of his life. His Chirurgie françoise, which went through four editions between 1569 and 1610, is based on the sixth book of Paul of Aegina’s De re medica, which he translated into French and augmented with commentary by Aretaus, Celsus, Avicenna and Albucasis. He attempted to set the surgery of the ancient work in context, and compared the surgical knowledge of antiquity with that of his own day. Daléchamp’s treatise includes numerous illustrations of surgical instruments, some of which he credited to Ambroise Paré and to Jacques Roy; however, Daléchamps also introduced instruments of his own design, which Paré acknowledged in his own works.