Gynaeciorum, hoc est, de mulierum tum aliis, tum gravidarum, parientium & puerperarum affectibus & morbis: by Wolf, Hans Kaspar, Editor [SIR JAMES Y. SIMPSON'S COPY]

Basileae: Per Thomam Guarinum, 1566. Quarto. [20], 5-868 columns [text has [432] pages containing columns 5-868], [22], [8], 63pp. Text printed in two columns. Printer's device on title-page; another one on last leaf verso. Later calf, rebacked. With textual woodcuts. Bound with: Mena, Fernando. Methodus febrium omnium ... Considered to be the first encylopedia of gynecology and obstetrics. Complied by Conrad Gesner, but completed, with additional material, by Hans Wolf and published one year after Gesner's death. Text contains the first edition of Moschion, "De morbis mulieribus Moschio?nos peri gynakeio?n patho?n." An ugly stain runs through most of the upper margin, affecting mostly the running titles, but occasionally dipping down onto the first or second line of text, but never obscuring it. At its worst, the stain is about two inches long, and about an inch high; at its best, it is much smaller. Additionally, this item has an intriguing entry that points to a wonderful provenance. On one of the front free endpapers, the name 'Sir James Y. Simpson' is boldly inscribed. I cannot ascertain whether the inscription is in Sir James Simpson's hand, or whether he signed his name as 'Sir James Y. Simpson' in later years. Signatures of his that I have seen on-line look rather different. It is possible, however, that this was a simple acknowledgement by Sir James Y. Simpson of his ownership of the item. Secondly, this book came from a collection of other medical books containing the bookplate of Sir Alexander Russell Simpson in memory of Sir James Young Simpson, so that the association with the Simpsons is undeniable..