Oribasio - Collectorum Medicinalium - 1555

ORIBASIUS ALDINUS: THE MEDICINE OF GIULIANO RISES IN VENICE
THE MEDICINE OF THE APOSTATE: BETWEEN GALEN AND PAOLE MANUTIUS
Elegant Aldine edition of the medical works of Oribasius, personal physician to Emperor Julian the Apostate, a central figure in the transmission of Greco-Roman medical science to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Printed in Venice by Paolo Manuzio, the work fits into the Aldine publishing program aimed at disseminating classical and scientific texts in a portable format and philologically curated. An example in a contemporaneous parchment binding, living testimony to the use and circulation of a fundamental text in the history of medicine.
MARKET VALUE
The fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Aldine editions, especially in octavo format and with contemporaneous bindings, are consistently valued in the antique-book market. The Greek medical works, less common than literary classics, hold special interest for collectors of the history of science. A complete copy in similar conditions generally falls within a range of 1,500 to 2,000 euros, with variations tied to paper freshness and binding integrity.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Contemporaneous soft parchment binding with sewing; traces of two bindings; signs of wear. Aldine printer’s mark at the title page. Marginal handwritten notes. Ornate initials. Pages with some browning and foxing. A numbering error on the last sheet. In old books with a long history, a few imperfections may be present that are not always noted in the description. pp. 8nn; 250.

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Collectorum Medicinalium libri XVII.
Venetiis, apud Paulum Manutium Aldi F., [1555].
Oribasio.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
Oribasius (4th century AD), a Greco-Roman physician from Pergamon, compiled extensive medical collections drawn from Galen and other classical authors. His Collecta medicinalia, organized into several books, constituted a fundamental tool for the transmission of ancient medical knowledge, especially in the Byzantine world.
The Aldine edition represents a key moment in the humanistic revival of Greek medicine, when Venice stood out as a primary center for publishing scientific texts in their original language. The octavo format, typical of the more mature Manuzian output, made the work easily consultable by physicians and scholars.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Oribasius (ca. 320–400 AD) was a physician and friend of Emperor Julian. Author of extensive medical compilations, he gathered and synthesized the doctrines of Galen and other Greek physicians, preserving numerous fragments of otherwiseLost works. His work profoundly influenced Byzantine medicine and, through Latin translations, the Western medieval medical tradition.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
Printed by Paolo Manuzio, heir to the Aldine workshop, the edition fits into the strand of Greek and scientific publications of the Venetian press in the mid-16th century. It served as a model for Torresanus’s Paris edition of 1555, confirming the central role of the Aldine enterprise in the European circulation of classical medical texts.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
EDIT16 (to be verified with the specific CNCE number of the edition).
Adams, O-558 (for sixteenth-century editions of Oribasius, to be verified with collation).
Renouard, Annales de l’imprimerie des Alde, for the Paolo Manuzio editions.
ICCU/OPAC SBN, locations of the Venetian edition.