Milestones of Science Books

GUIDI, Guido.

Vidi Vidii Florentini Artis medicinalis Tomus Tertius. In quo continentur De Ratione Victus Lib. VIII, De Medicamentis Lib. VIII, De Chirurgia Lib. IV, De anatome corporis humani libri VII. Nunc primum in lucem editi. .

Venice: Giunta, 1611.

1st Edition. Soft cover. Very Good. Item #003144

4 parts in 1 volume. Folio (308 x 228 mm). [12], 112; [14], 268; [8], 124 (i.e. 122), [2, blank]; [16], 342 (i.e. 332), [4] pp. Signatures: +⁶ A-H⁶ I⁸, a⁸ A-X⁶ Y⁸ (-a2?), a⁴ A-I⁶ K⁸, [pi]² a⁶ A-2D⁶ 2E⁴ chi². Several mispaginations. General title-page with printer's woodcut device at beginning, caption titles to parts I-III, leaves K8 and a6 blank, woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces; part III De Chirurgia with several woodcut illustrations in text of medical aids and instruments; part IV De anatome corporis with fine engraved architectural title-page by Francesco Valegio and Catarino Doino, 2 leaves of errata at end, 79 full-page anatomical engravings. Contemporary flexible vellum, spine titled in manuscript, remnants of laces preserved (vellum soiled and spotted, minor worming at joints, vellum at top margin of front cover chipped). Text generally bright and crisp, very minor occasional spotting and finger soiling, single wormtrack to final 20 leaves affecting text in final 4 leaves. Provenance: from the collection of Vincenzo Gallucci, the cardiac surgeon who performed the first heart transplant in Italy. An excellent, unsophisticated copy. ----

NLM/Krivatsy 5118 (part IV only); Wellcome I, p.349; Garrison-Morton 380 (part IV only); Norman 955 (parts III and IV only); Waller 3816 (part IV only); Heirs of Hippocrates (part IV only), Choulant-Frank, p. 212. FIRST EDITION of Vol. 3 of Guidi's Ars Medicinalis. Here complete with all 4 parts and as such of exceptional rarity. The Norman copy for example comprises parts III (De Chirurgia) and IV (De anatome) only. Moreover, part IV is often found bound as single volume without the first 3 parts. No copy is recorded at auction comprising all the 4 parts. Our copy collates with the copies at Florence Central Library (digitized) and The Royal College of Physicians of London, without section titles to part I-III and stating 14 preliminary unnumbered pages for part II. As with those, leaf a2 of the Index Librorum ac Capitum is absent in our copy and is probably a blank.
This is the third of three volumes of the Ars medicinalis, edited by the nephrew of Guido Guidi (or Vidus Vidius) and first published in four parts by the heirs of Lucantonio Giunta in 1611. It contain De Ractione Victus, De Medicamentis and De Chirurgia. The fourth part, De anatome corporis humani, with its own frontispiece, is published here for the first time (see Camerini, Annali dei Giunti, 1158-1159; Choulant 212: "The plates are mostly new and original"). Composed around 1560, and published posthumously, the anatomy contains descriptions of the vertebrae, cartilaginous structures and cranial bones superior to those of his predecessors; Guidi's name is still attached to the canal of the sphenoid bone ("Vidian canal") and the nerve that traverses it ("Vidian nerve"). The baroque title-page is signed in the plate by both Francesco Valesio, active as an engraver in Venice from about 1611 to 1643, and Catarin Doino, Valesio's frequent collaborator. Compared to the magnificent woodcuts in the Chirurgia which Guidi published in Paris, 1545, the anatomical illustrations in this posthumous work have been characterized as indifferent in quality. It is likely that the plates were prepared by Valesio and Doino, engravers of the title-page. - Visit our website for additional images and information.

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