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Volker Riepenhausen

An extremely rare and remarkable 17th-century medical compendium by Michael Ettmüller (1644–1683), professor of botany, surgery and philosophy at the University of Leipzig, whose writings shaped early modern approaches to anatomy, pathology, and therapeutics.

This first edition of Ettmüller’s collected works brings together his major theoretical and practical treatises on the human body and its diseases, offering one of the most comprehensive surveys of post-Galenic and chemical medicine of its era. 

Written in Latin, Ettmüller’s Opera Omnia synthesizes classical thought with contemporary discoveries influenced by Paracelsus, Helmont, Willis, and Sylvius, covering conditions from fevers and dysentery to the workings of the heart and respiratory system of William Harvey. 

Ettmüller "combined extensive scholarship with great practical ability and became a zealous advocate of chemiatry founded by Sylvius de la Boë, whose principles he was able to apply with great skill to physiology and pathology, so that his reputation as a teacher attracted a large number of students to Leipzig. (H./H.).

This volume of Michael Etmüller’s Opera omnia is a system-by-system handbook of internal medicine. Part I treats disorders of intake and digestion (abnormal appetite and thirst; chewing, swallowing, gastric retention, heartburn), a comprehensive bowel section (constipation, ileus/volvulus, diarrhea, cholera, lientery, dysentery, hemorrhoids, colic), anatomic shifts (hernias, prolapse), chyle and blood formation, and respiratory complaints (dyspnea, asthma, orthopnea, hiccup) plus upper-airway/expiration problems (sneezing, voice, hoarseness, dry/wet cough, suffocative catarrh). It then covers heart and pulse disturbances (faintness, syncope, asphyxia, palpitations) and an extensive fever taxonomy—including intermittent/continuous, hectic, malignant, petechial—and epidemic diseases (smallpox, measles, purpura, “Morbus Hungaricus”/typhus, plague). Part II turns to nutrition and cachectic states (atrophy, phthisis/tabes, cachexia, anasarca/leucophlegmasia, hydrops) and begins a section on inflammations and related conditions (erysipelas, gangrene, angina/tonsillar disease).

BOOK DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION:

Full mottled calf with gilt floral tooling and raised bands. The volume shows some rubbing and wear to edges, minor cracking to joints, and mild water-staining throughout, but remains sound and attractive. Interior pages are gently toned with occasional foxing consistent with age, and several leaves bear early ink annotations in a contemporary hand. Printed in clear Latin type with decorative headpieces and ornaments. 

Condition: Very Good.

RARITY ANALYSIS:

Only one copy of this book has been sold at auction in the last century (1931) – RBH. There is only one copy of this first edition (Lyon) in any library according to USTC (6102834). That copy resides at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

PROVENANCE:

The book bears an 18th Century inscription from a prior owner: F. Havard des Côtes, Doctor Medicinae. We are not able to identify him.

This book was also previously owned by the famed French medical bibliophile Arthur Tatossian. Arthur Tatossian (1929–1995) was a French psychiatrist and phenomenological thinker of Armenian descent, regarded as one of the foremost exponents of phenomenological psychiatry in the 20th century. A professor of psychiatry at Strasbourg, he is best known for his influential book La Phénoménologie des psychoses (1979), in which he applied Husserlian and Heideggerian phenomenology to the clinical understanding of schizophrenia and psychosis. Tatossian emphasized the importance of grasping the patient’s lived experience rather than reducing mental illness solely to biological or behavioral categories, making him a key figure in bridging philosophy and psychiatry. His work continues to inspire contemporary discussions in psychopathology, hermeneutics, and the philosophy of psychiatry.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Michael Ettmüller (May 26, 1644 - March 9, 1683), was a German physician. Born and raised in Leipzig, he studied at the University of Leipzig, Wittenberg, and after traveling in Italy, England, and France, returned to Leipzig, where in 1668 obtained his medical doctorate. 

In 1676 he became a member of the faculty of medicine, was awarded the chair of botany, with a professorship in anatomy and surgery.

Ettmüller did not publish much during his short life (39 years). A popular professor at the time, students flocked to Ettmüller’s lectures. 

Many of the works published under his name were student compilations of his lecture notes. 
One of his few personally published works, “A chemia experimentalis atque rationalis curiosa”, became a popular textbook for chemistry and pharmacy. 

His premature death on March 9th, 1683, was due to chronic lung disease apparently caused by exposure to chemicals during self-experimentation. 

Ettmüller believed in chemiatry (chemical therapy), a novel idea in medicine promoted first by Franciscus Sylvius (de la Boe, 1614-1672). 

Ettmüller’s work includes medical and chemical subjects. Dissertatio de chirurgia infusoria, his 1668 doctorate, details his experiments with injecting medications into the venous system of animals. He was one of the first German physicians to experiment with venous infusions of various remedies on animals.  

Ettmüller appears to be often neglected today, but was a much respected author until the 18th century. Thorndike spends 10 pages discussing his chemical manual, first published in 1684 by a former student as Chimia rationalis ac experimentalis and emphasizes his importance.

This first edition of his collected works was published posthumously.

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Michael Ettmüller - Opera Omnia Theoretica et Practica - 1685

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