MESUE, JOHANNES (Yuhannah ibn Masawaih)
(Opera medicinalia) "Mesue cum espositione Mondii super canones universales ... " (and other texts)
Folio (320 x 215 mm), attractive blindstamped half calf over wooden boards (expertly rebacked, with the original spine, but the upper board replaced). Some waterstaining to the upper corner in the first half of the vol., with tiny damp spots somethere, for else generally a good copy with wide margins and many contemporary manuscript annotations, especially in the verso of last leaf. Gothic type printed in double columns, 66 lines, floriated woodcut white-on-black initials, ff. nn. 332. Penultimate and most complete of the incunable editions, and the first to include (as listed on the title-page) the commentary of St. John de Armand on the Antidotarium of Nicolas of Salerno, together with his text, one of the most widely recogniszed pharmacopoeias of the Middle Ages. Also included is the Complementum practicae of Francescus Pedemontanus; a commentary on the Canones of Mesu_ by Mundinus, the Expositio super Antidotarium Mesue by Christophorus de Honestis; the Additiones ad practicam of Petrus de Abano on tumours of the breast and diseases of the stomach and liver; and the Compendium aromatariorum of Saladinus of Ascoli, generally considered the first really modern pharmacopoeia. The Grabadin [here called the Antidotarium] of Mesu_ junior was for centuries the authority on the composition of medicaments and became the basis of the later official pharmacopoeias. Klebs 680.14. BMC V, 444.
[Colophon:] Impressa Venetiis [Venice:] per Bonetum Locatellum, impensis Octaviani Scoti, 31 march 1495
€ 20.000,00
