MESUE, de re medica libri tres, 1561
MESUE, Yuhanna ibn Masawaih.
Ioannis Mesuae Damasceni, de re medica libri tres.
Paris, Aegidium Gorbinum, 1561.
8vo (168x108 mm), (8)-200 feuillets. binding : Contemporary full vellum, flat spine. Stain on first cover.
Edition translated by Jacques Dubois (Sylvius) who will become the reference text.
It contains the antidote of Mesue, an Arabic-speaking doctor, pharmacopoeia which has the originality of introducing sugar into Western pharmacopoeia for the first time.
The Arabs had access to this rare commodity which was cultivated in India through their conquest in Persia.
references: Brunet [III, 1675] Garrison-Morton [9415, ed. 1542 : "Dubois, better known as Sylvius, produced a new translation of the complete works of Mesue, which became the standard text, and was reprinted 21 times"] Heirs of Hippocrates [85: "Masawayh al-Mardini (known in the West as Mesuë the Younger) is supposed to have been a Jacobite Christian who lived in the tenth century. Since none of his writings has been found in its original language and no Arabian historian or bibliographer seems to know him, it is now believed that a Latin author (perhaps an Italian) of the early thirteenth century assumed the name of Mesuë, hoping thereby to gain ready recognition for his works under the guise of the ninth century Syrian physician who wrote in Arabic. At any rate, his writings were accepted as genuinely Arabian and held such a place of importance that they went through more than a dozen editions between their first printing in 1471 and 1500."].
Price : 1000 €
