Otho von Brunfels - Theses seu communes loci, totius rei Medicae [First edition] - 1532

(MEDICINE; PHARMACOLOGY; FIRST EDITIONS; FINE BINDINGS) Otho Von BRUNFELS (1488-1534)
Theses seu communes loci, totius rei Medicae. Item. De usu pharmacorum, deq artificio suppressam aluum ciendi, Liber. Per Othonem Brunfelsium. Argentorati excudebat Georgius Ulricher Andlanus, 1532.
§ 8vo (150x100); [10], 232 leaves. Signature: []10, a-z8, A-F8. Printer’s mark on title page and last page (2 different), woodcut initials. Ownership signatures on title page: (erased), dated 1595, Matheus Letellier Doctor Medicus Monspeliardis 1739, stempel (Durand), repeated; on pastedown printed label M. Durand, méd. à Chartres.. Intriguing contemporary blind-tooled calf, ties missing, top and foot of spine and top of front cover skillfully restored, fragment of an ancient manuscript inside binding., fine copy in a fascinating binding.
FIRST EDITION, significantly rare. “Brunfels, a German botanist, became a Carthusian monk in his early twenties, a short time after completing his education at Mainz. He abandoned the monastery in 1521 when he became a convert to the Protestant faith and spent several years at various towns in southwest Germany as an evangelical minister and theological writer. Brunfels returned to Strasbourg in 1524 where he established a school and directed his interests to the study of botany and medicine. He is most often remembered for his classic work in botany, Herbarum vivae icones (1530-1536), a work which marked the beginning of modern taxonomy. He received a medical degree at Basel in 1532 or 1533 and, after a short period in private practice in Strasbourg, was appointed town physician at Bern in 1533. He died only a year later, probably of diphtheria. This little-known work of Brunfels, edited by Johannes Munterus (fl. 1513-1532), is a treatise on the pharmacological approach to a wide variety of diseases. Included with it are Alessandro Benedetti's (ca. 1450-1512) Sententiae medicinales and Arnaldus de Villanova's Sententiarum medicinalium morborum curationibus as well as several other short tracts by Villanova.” (Heirs of Hippocrates).
The only information we were able to find about Johannes Munterus is that he was a medical student living in Alsace (BNF). Arnaldus de Villa Nova (also called Arnau de Vilanova, c. 1240 - c. 1311) was a physician, alchemist and astrologer; he wrote several medical and theological works. “Arnald of Vilanova was the outstanding physician in Europe during the thirteenth century. His translations and commentaries on the works of Galen, Avicenna, AI-Kindi, and Hippocrates helped lift European medical practice out of the realm of folk art and connect it with classical Greek and Arabic medicine. His original works represented a singular advancement in the diagnostic theory of the time. He set up the medical curriculum at Montpellier, and it was through his influence that Montpellier became the leading center for medical education in Europe in the late Middle Ages.” (Daly, p. 31). Alessandro Benedetti was professor of practical medicine and anatomy in Padua; “The greatest scientific merit of B. was that of having been able to arouse a new interest in anatomical research.” (Crespi, translated).
 Krivatsy 29; Wellcome 1105; ADAMS B-2931; Heirs of Hippocrates 193; BMC/German p. 156; Durling, Supp. I, 29; MARIO CRESPi Benedetti, Alessandro In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani; Juanita A. Daly Arnald of Villanova: Physician and Prophet In: Essays in Medieval Studies 4, pp. 29-43 (http://www.illinoismedieval.org/ems/VOL4/daly.html[7/19/2011 2:39:24 AM]).
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