Johannes Scultetus [Jean Scultet] - L'arcenal de chirurgie... - 1712

L'arcenal de chirurgie, de Jean Scultet, médecin et chirurgien de la République d'Ulmes. Nouvellement traduit en françois par un célèbre médecin. Augmenté de plusieurs réflexions sur la théorie, & de quantité de remèdes convenables à chaque maladie ; avec un traité des accouchemens, naturels & contre nature : la description de deux monstres humains, & une dissertation sur un autre monstre, né à Lyon le 28. de sept. 1702. Enrichi de 50 figures en taille-douce, où sont représentez tous les instrumens de chirurgie anciens & modernes ; avec la manière de faire les opérations

Lion [Lyon], chez Léonard de La Roche, 1712.

Quarto in two parts: engraved title, 16 unnumbered pages, 399, 361-369 pages, 3 unnumbered pages, 138 pages, 21 unnumbered pages .

Very handsome early 19th century sheepskin, with ornamental dentelles, all edges marbled. Presenting very well.

Title printed in red and black. The illustrations consist of a frontispiece representing a surgeon performing a leg bandaging operation, his instruments hanging on the wall, sixteen plates, one of which gives the figure of the monster presented in Lyon in 1702, and thirty-four full-page figures.

New French edition of this work. It was published for the first time in Ulm in 1655 and in French, in Lyon, in 1672. Its interest and reputation lie in the abundance of engraved figures, representing for the most part "old and modern surgical instruments with the traditional to carry out the operations"; for this reason it went through many editions in different languages. Jean Scultet (1595-1645) was a student of Fabrice d'Aquapendente and Adrian Spiegel's anatomy tutor for seven years. A surgeon in the German wars and in the Ulm hospital for twenty years, he became an expert in this field. Here he described surgical instruments, methods of bandaging and splinting, numerous operative procedures (including breast amputation), forceps delivery, and over a hundred of his case reports.

Complete with 46 numbered engraved plates + four unnumbered, some of these folding, which represent surgical instruments, operations and three pages of monsters. The subject of monster or unnatural births forms the basis for the second part of the book.

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At his death in 1645, Scultetus ranked with Fabry von Hilden as the leading German surgeon of his era. He invented many devices and bandages, among them the many-tailed bandage ('Scultetus's bandage') used for abdominal wounds. . . . Through its numerous revised and expanded editions and translations, Scultetus's work became the most widely published illustrated treatise on surgery of the seventeenth century.

The work offered here is an updated translation of Cheiroplothēkē, seu, Armamentarium chirurgicum. What is new in the book is, as the title says, 'plusieurs réflexions sur la théorie, & de quantité de remedes convenables à chaque maladie; avec un traité des accouchemens ... la description de deux monstres humains, & une dissertation sur un autre monstre, né à Lyon le 28 de septembre 1702'.

The book, which is very profusely illustrated, gives an excellent view of late 17th medical and surgical practice, illustrating such procedures as amputation of the breast, reduction of dislocations, forceps delivery, neurosurgery, etc. The work includes a complete catalogue of all known surgical instruments, of the methods of bandaging and splinting, and of a vast number of operative procedures, all of which are illustrated in graphic detail by means of numerous plates which were never again published in their original folio size. This work is also significant in the history of dentistry and dental instruments. Schultes had been a pupil of Spigelius, successor to Fabricius ab Aquapendente, and his Cheiroplothēkē, seu, Armamentarium chirurgicum published some of the first illustrations of the dental instruments described by Fabricius in his Opera chirurgica (1619).

REFERENCES
Hahn & Dumaître, p. 201/204 - Waller 8790 - Bayle & Thillaye I.465 - Blake p.412 - Dezeimeris IV. 132.