Aulus Cornelius CELSUS - Medicine libri octo- rare medical work - 1516

(MEDICINE;EARLY PRINTING; FINE BINDINGS; RARIORA) Aulus Cornelius CELSUS (25 BC c. - 50 AD c.)
Aurelij Cornelij Celsi Medicine libri octo noviter emendati et impressi: cum tabula repertoria cuiuslibet libri et capitula (colophon: Lugduni, impressor Simon Bevelaqua, die X mensis septembris 1516)
§ 4to (196x142); 106, [6] leaves, signature a-z4, A-E4, last leaf blank. Title page printed in red with woodcut printer’s device (a cross composed by small crosses) in black; woodcut initials,. Text in gothic. Slightly later limp vellum, gilt double fillet and central medaillon on both boards. gilt edges; hand-written title on spine. Fine copy on crisp paper.
The only surviving of Celsus’ works, possibly a part of an extensive encyclopedia; it was first printed in Florence in 1478, the first medical book to be printed. It is considered one of the best sources concerning medical knowledge in the Roman world. Divided in eight books, it deals with the history of medicine, anatomy, pharmacology, surgery, orthopedics, general pathology and describes specific diseases. It has long be discussed if Celsus was or not a physician; after an exhaustive analysis of the work, Prioreschi concludes: “As we have seen, Celsus was a physician. From his writing we may conclude that his professional skills were excellent and that his knowledge of medicine was exhaustive. He was also endowed with superior literary skills. The De Medicina is a masterpiece of Latin prose, while the arrangement and treatment of various subjects attests to a writer of outstanding intellectual capacities and not to a pedestrian compiler adapting and rearranging an original Greek text.” (p. 211) and “His contributions to medicine are major he wrote the first major medical treatise in Latin; he created, almost single-handedly, scientific Latin; and he wrote the first systematic review of all that was known in medicine up to his time. Very few have accomplished as much.” (p. 213).
Ref: BAUDRIER, ii, 17-18 and BAUDRIER ii (with reproduction of the printer’s device), 14 n. 2; VON GÜLTLINGEN, iii; BEVILACQUA n. 6; DURLING, 906; PLINIO PRIORESCHI A history of medicine Horatius Press, 1996, pp.183-213 and passim.