Scribonius Largus - Scriboni Largi, medici vetustis (Scribonii Largi) - 1529

Binding in half pigskin and parchment spine. Fine blind tooling on the boards. Spine with 3 raised bands and gold tooling, with a small ex libris affixed.

1 white leaf, [8], 318, [1]

This is the second edition of the 'De compositione medicamentorum' by Scribonius in the original Latin, one of the earliest pharmacopeias, written in Rome under the Emperor Claudius in 47 CE, published under the care of the French physician and botanist Jean Ruel (ca. 1474–1537). It describes the preparation and use of 271 drugs and has been one of the standard sources for almost all dispensaries and pharmacopeias that followed, up to the 17th century. It includes the first accurate description of the preparation of opium, the first known account of electroshock therapy (using a catfish as the source of electric discharge to remedy a headache), and describes the therapeutic use of one's own blood.

Cap a letter engraved at the beginning of the work. Printer’s mark at the colophon (on the verso of the last leaf). Restoration along the lower margin of the title page. Very light wear toward the end of the volume. Manuscript notes and underlinings in an antique hand. Overall a copy in good condition, complete and usable.