Montanus - Consultationum Medicarum - 1565

THE FATHER OF MODERN CLINIC: FROM MONTE DALLE TO UNIVERSITY LECTURE ROOMS TO THE PATIENT’S BED
Important edition of Consultationum Medicarum, published in Basel in 1565 by Henricus Petri and Petrus Perna, which systematically gathers the clinical heritage of Giovanni Battista da Monte (Johannes Baptista Montanus), the great Veronese physician considered the founder of modern clinical teaching. The work, expanded and revised by Johannes Crato von Krafftheim, imperial physician to Maximilian II, includes over a hundred new consultations compared to previous editions and constitutes the most authoritative compendium of Renaissance clinical cases. Through diagnoses, observations and therapies drawn from direct patient experience, Montano inaugurates a method destined to revolutionize European medicine, based on clinical observation rather than on the authority of ancient texts alone.
WHY TO BUY
• A foundational work in the birth of modern clinical medicine.
• Basel 1565 edition, among the most important of the 16th century.
• Large woodcut portrait of Giovanni Battista da Monte on the frontispiece.
• Edited and expanded by the famous imperial physician Johannes Crato.
• Direct testimony of Renaissance medical practice.

MARKET VALUE
The sixteenth-century editions of Consultationum Medicarum are steadily sought after by the international antiques market, both for their importance in the history of medicine and for the prestige of Basel publishing. Complete copies of the 1565 edition generally range between €1,500 and €2,000.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Ancient vellum binding with a manuscript title on the spine. Original frontispiece reproduced on antique paper. Text in roman type with historized and decorative woodcut initials. Old restoration with loss of text in columns 941–944. Some natural browning and sporadic moisture marks. Pages: (2), 16 nn., 512, (2).
In old books with a multigenerational history, a few imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description.

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Ioannis Baptistae Montani, Philosophi et Medici Excellentissimi. Consultationum Medicarum Opus absolutissimum.
Basel, Henricus Petri & Petrus Perna, 1565.
Giovanni Battista da Monte (Johannes Baptista Montanus).

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
This work represents one of the founding texts of Western medicine. Giovanni Battista da Monte was the first to introduce at the University of Padua the practical teaching carried out directly beside the patients admitted to the hospital of San Francesco, replacing the traditional method based solely on books with systematic clinical observation. The Consultationum Medicarum collect hundreds of real consultations concerning fevers, neurological diseases, respiratory illnesses, cardiac ailments, digestive disorders, ocular diseases and many other clinical conditions. Each case is discussed with rigorous method, comparing symptoms, prognosis and therapeutic treatment, in an approach that anticipates modern medicine based on observation and experience.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Giovanni Battista da Monte (1489–1551), Latinized as Johannes Baptista Montanus, was born in Verona and was professor of theoretical and practical medicine at the University of Padua, the most prestigious European medical center of the Renaissance. He is unanimously regarded as the founder of modern clinical teaching for having introduced bedside patient rounds as an integral part of university training. Among his pupils are some of the leading figures of 16th-century medicine. His influence quickly spread across Europe, profoundly altering the method of teaching medicine.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
Montano’s works were published almost entirely after his death and achieved extraordinary success. Numerous subsequent editions contributed to the remarkable dissemination of the work in universities across the continent, cementing Montano’s fame as the father of clinical medicine.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Adams, M-1758.
Durling, Catalogue of Sixteenth Century Printed Books in the National Library of Medicine, no. 3129.
USTC – Universal Short Title Catalogue.
VD16 – Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachbereich erschienenen Drucke des 16. Jahrhunderts.
Wellcome Collection, Historical Medical Library.
National Library of Medicine, Historical Collections.
WorldCat, records of the sixteenth-century editions of Consultationum Medicarum.
ICCU / OPAC SBN.
Hirsch, Biographisches Lexikon der hervorragenden Ärzte aller Zeiten und Völker, IV, pp. 319-321.
Garrison-Morton, Medical Bibliography.
Nancy G. Siraisi, Medieval & Early Renaissance Medicine.
Vivian Nutton, Renaissance Medicine.