C. Galeno - De Locorum Affectorum Notitia - 1547

Claudius Galeni
De locorum affectorum notitia libri sex.
 Gulielmo Copo Basileiensi interprete.
Lugduni (Lyon), apud Gulielmum Rouillium,(1547).

12,5 × 8,2 cm; pp. [56], 389, [1].

Rare Lyonese edition in small format of the fundamental Galenic treatise De locis affectis (De affectorum locorum notitia), one of the cornerstone texts of ancient and Renaissance medicine. Galen analyzes with extraordinary systematicity the diagnosis of diseases according to the parts of the body involved, distinguishing primary and secondary affections, causes, symptoms and prognosis: an work that formed the basis of Western medical practice until the eighteenth century. The Latin translation by Guillaume Cop (Basel-born humanist and physician) was among the most appreciated and widespread in the sixteenth century.

This is one of the most elusive editions of this text; Guillaume Rouillé’s 1547 printing in pocket format is extremely rare on the antiquarian market. The sixteenth-century Latin translations of Galen, especially those in small format intended for professional use, appear very sporadically at international auctions and are particularly sought after by collectors of the history of medicine, classical philology and Renaissance science.

A complete copy, with contemporary annotations and underlinings attesting to active consultation by a physician or scholar of the time. Bound in full parchment; spine worn. Missing at the lower corner of the title page, moisture stain of variable intensity in the lower part (visible throughout the work but not compromising legibility), wear from p. 350 to the end and a lacuna in the upper part of the first leaf. Despite the signs of age, it presents as an intact and historically significant exemplar.

Piece of notable rarity and high collecting value; a rare opportunity to acquire a foundational text of the history of medicine in one of its less common sixteenth-century editions.