Milestones of Science Books

PARÉ, Ambroise.

The Workes of that famous Chirurgion Ambrose Parey.

London: Th. Cotes and R. Young, 1634.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #003489

Folio (333 x 221 mm). [14], 487 [1], 553-1083 [1], 1093-1173 [1], [22] pp. Numerous pagination errors, pp. 489-552 and 1085-1092 omitted. Engraved title page by T. Cecill, 323 woodcut illustrations of anatomical subjects, surgical instruments and procedures, monsters and freaks of nature, etc., including 4 full-page depictions of the human circulatory and nervous systems, woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces. Signatures: pi1 [par^]2 A⁴ B-2S⁶ 2T⁴ 3A-4V⁶ 4X-4Y⁴ 4Z-5E⁶ 5F⁴ 5G-5H⁶. Contemporary calf, rebacked, spine with new lettering piece. Repairs to title page, first 2 leaves of text re-margined, leaves 3G2-5 shorter at upper margin, leaves 4F1, 4F6, 4I3, 4I4, 4K3 remargined at foot, a few marginal tears and paper flaws not affecting text, marginal waterstaining to first few pages, occasional finger soiling, creasing, and spotting, p.117/18 torn at upper margin with loss of page numbers and part of ruling, final leaf soiled and with old repairs. A few ink annotations. Provenance: James Tait Goodrich (bookplate to front pastedown). Still a good copy. ----

Doe 51; Norman 1640; Russell 646; STC 19189. - RARE FIRST ENGLISH EDITION of Paré's collected works, first published in French in 1575. The work is profusely illustrated with almost 300 woodcut illustrations, including anatomical and surgical woodcuts, as well as woodcuts of "monsters" and zoological oddities. "Paré, of humble Huguenot beginnings and poorly educated, became the sixteenth century's outstanding surgeon and the greatest military surgeon before his fellow countryman, Larrey, more than two hundred years later. He began his studies as a barber-surgeon and at age nineteen, while working as a surgical dresser and assistant in a Paris hospital, he began to acquire the fund of practical knowledge for which he became a legend in his own time. Probably his best known innovations were his discarding the use of boiling oil in gunshot wounds and the reintroduction of simple ligature instead of red hot cautery after amputation. He invented many surgical and dental instruments and was especially adept at devising ingenious artificial limbs" (Heirs of Hippocrates 271). "He was the first to suggest that syphilis is a cause of aneurysm. He popularized the truss, introducted artifical limbs, and (in dentistry) re-implantation of the teeth" (Garrison-Morton 4750). - Visit our website to see more images!

Price: 7,500 €  *  convert currency