Galeno - Galeni Librorum - 1609

GALEN AND THE PHARMACOLOGY OF THE ANCIENT WORLD: simples, weights, and antidotes
ANTIDOTARY - An important and monumental sixteenth-century Venetian edition of Galen's pharmacological works, in which converge the fundamental texts dedicated to simples, their nature, therapeutic virtues, and the proper measurement of compounds. The volume belongs to the great editorial tradition of Galenic works organized by “classes,” and is part of the famous Venetian printing enterprise that aimed to offer European physicians a reliable, corrected, and annotated corpus of ancient medicine. The richly carved woodcut frame of the title page, with scenes of medical practice, teaching, and consultation, visually translates Galen’s authority as physician, philosopher, and legislator of therapeutic science up to the modern era.
MARKET VALUE
Similar complete copies in comparable condition appear on the international market with prices generally ranging from 1,500 to 2,500 euros, with fluctuations tied to the state of the binding, the freshness of the paper, and the completeness of the Galenic classes present. The illustrated Venetian editions of this Galenic cycle are consistently sought after by collectors of ancient medicine and the history of pharmacy.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Stiff binding covered with sheet of an old antiphonal book. Frontispiece richly engraved within an ornamental woodcut frame, initials historiated. Heads of the various books illustrated by a large woodcut vignette. Pages with some browning, foxing. In ancient books, with a long history, there may be some imperfections, not always noted in the description. Pp. (2); 554; (2).

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Galeni librorum Quinta Classis.
Venetiis, apud Iuntas, 1609.
Galeno.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The Quinta Classis of Galen’s works is dedicated to the pharmacopoeia and represents one of the pillars of ancient and medieval medicine. It brings together crucial texts such as De simplicium medicamentorum facultatibus, which analyzes the properties of natural remedies according to the theory of temperaments, and treatises on compounds and on weights and measures, fundamental for therapeutic practice. This section of the Galenic corpus played a central role in university medical training until the eighteenth century and formed the theoretical basis for Renaissance pharmacopoeias. The Venetian edition by the Giunta heirs stands out for its typographic quality, clarity of text, and the iconographic apparatus, which makes the volume not only a scientific instrument but also an object of great symbolic and didactic power.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Galen was born in Pergamon in 129 AD and probably died around 216 AD. A physician of gladiators and then of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, he was the greatest systematizer of ancient medicine. His work, which blends clinical observation, Aristotelian philosophy, and Hippocratic tradition, dominated Western and Islamic medicine for over a millennium, profoundly influencing theory of temperaments, pharmacology, and physiology.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The Venetian editions of Galen’s works edited by the Giunta heirs constitute one of the high points of European medical publishing in the early seventeenth century. Printed in large folio volumes, organized by thematic classes, they were designed for professional and academic use. The Quinta Classis circulated widely in Italian, French, and German universities, becoming a stable reference for physicians, apothecaries, and scholars of materia medica.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
ICCU / OPAC SBN, Galeni Opera, Venetian Giunta editions, sixteenth–seventeenth centuries.
Adams, Catalogue of Books Printed on the Continent of Europe.
Durling, A Catalogue of Sixteenth-Century Printed Books in the National Library of Medicine.
Wellcome Library, Early Printed Books in Medicine.
Nutton, Ancient Medicine, Routledge.
Siraisi, Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine, University of Chicago Press. was born in Pergamon in 129 AD and probably died around 216 AD. A physician of gladiators and then of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, he was the greatest systematizer of ancient medicine. His work, which unites clinical observation, Aristotelian philosophy, and Hippocratic tradition, dominated Western and Islamic medicine for over a thousand years, profoundly influencing the theory of temperaments, pharmacology, and physiology.