SEVERINO, Marco Aurelio - De efficaci medicina Lib. III. - 1646

SEVERINO, Marco Aurelio (1580-1656). De efficaci medicina Lib. III. Francfort, Joannem Beyerum, 1646.

Small folio format, (8) leaves (including the engraved title page by Matthäus Merian, title, preface, and index), 297 pages, plus (14) pages; woodcut illustrations throughout the text. First edition.

Marco Aurelio Severino was one of the most distinguished physicians and surgeons of seventeenth-century Italy. Born in Tarsia and active primarily in Naples, he gained an international reputation for his anatomical investigations and surgical innovations. Severino is particularly remembered for his pioneering observations on tumors and pathological anatomy, work that anticipated later developments in the study of disease.

This is a practical medical treatise in which Marco Aurelio Severino sought to identify and defend therapies that he considered demonstrably effective in clinical practice. Rather than presenting a purely theoretical discussion, Severino grounded much of the work in observation and experience, drawing upon cases encountered during his long career as a physician and surgeon in Naples.

This is a defense and exposition of operative surgery and invasive therapy. Severino argues that medicine should be judged by its efficacy (efficacia) rather than by adherence to authority. Professor of anatomy and surgery at Naples, Severino became well known as a teacher and surgeon. He employed trephination, operated upon harelip, epulis, empyema, and is said to have been the first to perform a tracheotomy to relieve suffocation in diphtheria. Among his works is this important contribution in which he discusses surgical anatomy, phlebotomy, paracentesis, and cautery.

The three books examine a wide range of diseases and therapeutic methods. Severino discusses fevers, inflammatory conditions, wounds, ulcers, tumors, and various internal disorders, evaluating both pharmaceutical remedies and surgical interventions. Particular attention is given to the selection and administration of medicines, the indications for treatment, and the circumstances under which a physician might expect a remedy to succeed or fail.

Modern half-sheepskin binding, incorporating gilt decorative elements reused from an 18th-century binding spine. Manuscript bookplate inscription on the title page.

Condition:
The title page has perforations that have been repaired, with a few letters supplied. Loss of paper in the lower margin of about ten leaves, resulting in the loss of a few words. Wormholes in the upper corner of the second half of the book have caused the loss of a few letters. All major paper losses and worm tracks have been reinforced with tissue paper by a professional book restorer, so this volume us now very presentable.

Rarity:
This book has been offered at auction four times in the last century (RBH). USTC shows 10 copies of the first edition in world libraries including six on the continent and four in the UK (Bodleian, Wellcome, Edinburgh, Aberdeen). No copies are found in libraries elsewhere.

An uncommon work by this Italian physician and surgeon, renowned for his discoveries concerning tumors.

A copy in modern binding is offered by Emerald Books, NYC for $3,400