Facsiculus Medicine by KETHAM, Johannes de - 1512

Antwerp: Claes de Grave, 1512. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Folio - over 12 - 15" tall. Folio (275x210 mm). ci [i.e. xcix, 5] ff. including 8 full-page woodcuts, large woodcut ornamental initials at the beginning of each tract, printed paragraph marks and printed initials within each tract. Signatures: a-p6, q4, r6, s4. Text printed in 2 columns with 41 lines and headline. Printer's device (coat of arms) and colophon at leaf r6r: "Ende is voleyndt in dye v[er]maerde stadt van Antwerpen bi Claes die Graue in onser vrouwe[n] pant. Int iaer ons here[n] M. CCCCC. ende xij. op den xxvisten Dach van Meye." Errors in foliation: Numbers xxxviii-xl omitted in sequence and a leaf numbered xlvii appears between leaves numbered xlix and 1. Also, leaves xlv, lvi, and lxxxviii are misnumbered xl, lvii, and xcxi respectively. Original wooden boards, spine repaired with old leather, one catch plate, two remnants of wooden clasp plates and one brass corner still present, no flyleaves present. Leaves are untrimmed, fore-edges mostly frayed, a few annotations present in contemporary hand. The paper is lightly browned throughout with marginal soiling and occasional spotting. Few leaves have short closed tears, some leaves with paper repairs at gutter and fore-margin (not affecting text or images). An outstanding copy of an impossibly rare work, printed on strong paper. Complete. ---- Nijhoff-Kronenberg 1223; Coppens, Quaerendo 39, 2009, p.168-205; Panzer VI, 5, 17; PMM 36 (first Italian ed.); Dibner 121 (2nd Latin ed.); Heirs of Hippocrates (1522 Lat. ed.); Norman, Grolier Medicine 10 (1st Latin and Italian eds.); not in Wellcome or Durling/NLM. Exceedingly rare with only 9 copies known to date of which 2 are incomplete. According to C. Coppens, 2 are in The Netherlands (Amsterdam Univ. Lib. and a fragment in the Koninklijke Lib., The Hague), 2 in Belgium (Royal Lib. Brussels and an incomplete copy at Univ. Lib. Leuven), 2 in Copenhagen and 1 with the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. According to USTC, a further copy is at Houghton Library, USA. No copies are in Wellcome Library or the National Library of Medicine. No copies in Germany, Italy or the U.K. The Antwerp 1512 edition of Ketham's Fasciculus is the first illustrated book on medicine in the Netherlands (Coppens). On 26 May 1512 Claes de Grave in Antwerp brought out a Dutch translation of the Fasciculus on to the market. The translator, a certain Petrus Antonianus (Peter Antonissen or something similar) identifies himself in a preface, the Prologhe, and says that he has translated the book from the Latin for the honour of Antwerp and for the benefit of ordinary people, "ten profi jte vanden gemeinen volcke" (Coppens, p.175-6). In January 1512, the printer-bookseller and bookbinder Claes de Grave was granted the privilege by the Council of Brabant in Brussels to print in the vernacular, among others, Ketham's Fasciculus Medicine and Cube's Den groten herbarius [The great Herbal]. Ketham's work has evidently been compiled from two editions of the Fasciculus; the colophon appears on the last leaf of the penultimate gathering. (Nijhoff-Kronenberg 1223). As is suitable for books in the vernacular, a considerable number are illustrated or at least have a richly adorned title page. The woodcuts are by various artists and differ in quality. Some have clearly been taken over from elsewhere. For his first production he certainly made a huge effort and had new woodcuts made for the Fasciculus based on the cycle first published by De Gregori. De Grave followed in the footsteps of the Venetian publisher who produced the first illustrated medical book in Italy, when, so many years later, he brought the first illustrated medical book in the Netherlands on to the market. It is no slavish copy of the Italian model. In the first place the Italian Renaissance has not yet reached the Netherlands apart from some small decorative elements. As the Latin text is translated into Dutch, so too the Italian illustrations are translated, but the order is changed. Some illustrations are not included, for one a different model is used, and a diagram not found in the Venetian cycle is included (Coppens, p.177). Contains the texts of Joannes Jacobi's Regimen contra pestilentiam; Pietro da Tossignano's Consilium pro peste evitanda; and Mondino dei Luzzi's Anatomia, edited by Petrus Andreas Morsianus. Woodcuts included are: Vein man (leaf a5r), zodiacal man (leaf d2v), pregnant woman (leaf d3v), wound man (leaf f3r), disease man (leaf g5r), scene at the bedside of a plague patient (leaf h4v), human skeleton (leaf I1v), urinoscopy scene (leaf r6v) and Flask Wheel, divided into two wheels (s1r-v). The frontispiece woodcut of the Latin and Italian editions with Petrus de Montagnana and the anatomy class are not included. Content: (From title leaf:) Inde[n] eerste[n] Een tractaet om die viere naturen en[t] complectien der mensche[n] En[t] alderha[n]de siecheden te kennene -- Een tractaet van die adere[n] te latene oft te flobothomerene teghen alderhande ghebreken -- Een tractaet van die Juditien der aderen en[t] des bloets met vele schoone cautelen -- Een tractaet om te latene van dye Astronomie -- Een tractaet teghen die ghebreken der vrouwen -- Sommighe probleumata en[t] natuerlike vraghe[n] van die lede[n] der generatien -- Een tractaet vander Cyrurgie teghen alderhande quetsuere[n] en[t] contusien en[t] ongheuallen -- Een tractaet om veelderhande nootskelijcke saluen en[t] plaesteren te componerene -- Een tractaet dat alle die namen va[n] alle siecheden des lichaems declarere[n]de is. Met haere sonderlinghe curatien -- Een speciael tractaet teghen die pestile[n]cie van heere Kamitius bisscop va[n] Arusien ghemaect -- Een preseruatijf regiment en[t] een curatijf regiment teghen dye pestilentie va[n] meester Petrus de Tausignano gemaect dat alle regime[n]ten te boue[n] gaet -- Een alder excellenste ende experste Anothomie van Meester Mondinus -- En[t] ten laetsten een tractaet van die Juditien der vrinen met haere accide[n]tien.