Les oeuvres d'Ambroise Paré, conseiller, et premier chirurgien du roy Divisees en vingt neuf livres, Avec les figures & portraicts, tant de l’Anatomie, que des instruments de Chirurgie, & de plusieurs Monstres. Reveuës & augmentees par l'Autheur, peu auparavant son decez Cinquiesme Edition
Paris: Veufue Gabriel Buon, 1598. Fifth and best edition.
Folio in 6s (13 ¾” x 8 11/16”, 349mm x 221mm): ã6 ẽ4 a-z6 A-Zz6 AA-KKk6 LLl6(–LLl6 blank) MMm-VVv6 XXx4(–XXx4 blank) [$4 signed; –ã1, Z1; Yy3 mis-signed “Yy ij”, MMm2 mis-signed “A ij”). 684 leaves, pp. [26] (engraved title, blank, 3pp. dedication to Henri III, 5pp. verses, 2pp. authors cited, 6pp. to the reader, table of chapters, privilege, 5pp. preface, table of surgical chapters), 1-1228, [114] (113pp. index, blank). Without the frontispiece portrait found in some copies.
Bound in contemporary sprinkled calf. On the spine, six raised bands. Author gilt to the second panel. All edges of the text-block speckled red and brown.
Hinges starting, with rubbing, scuffing, abrasion and loss throughout. Title-page trimmed and backed, with a filled loss at the lower edge (not affecting the image).[1] Very mildly tanned throughout. Pressed plant at z5.6. Damp-stains to Pp6-Qq1, Qq6, Ss4-Tt2, TT5-Vv1, Xx4-DD6, LL6-OO3, PP6-TT2, YY5-EEe6, GGg1-HHh3, Iii6-LLl6 (an odd pattern, suggesting perhaps spills before binding). Large loss to the bottom edge of Yy1, not affecting the text. Worming to the lower margin of PP5-HHh2. A single marginalium to p. 1119 in an old hand: “diapalma.” Ownership signature of “L DeJupilles” to the title-page as well as to p. 1189 (the end of the works of Paré) and to p. 1228 (the end of the text). Rare to find in contemporary binding, and the wear surely honest.
Ambroise Paré (ca. 1509/10–1590) was (barber-)surgeon to four kings of France (Henri II, François II, Charles IX and Henri III, to whom the present work is dedicated), and is generally considered France’s father of surgery. First published in 1575, the Oeuvres of Paré show the vast XVIc remit of a surgeon, viz., a doctor and natural scientist. He reintroduced ligation (tying off) in lieu of cauterization (burning) during amputation, a return to the practices of Galen that had been ignored for over a millennium. This 1598 fifth (“cinquiesme”) edition[2] is the first to contain the full complement of Paré’s revisions, albeit applied posthumously. It is widely considered the “best” — a hairy term in bibliography, but here clearly applicable — and was the basis for Malgaigne’s 1840 re-issue of the work. It is also quite rare, having come to auction five times (including one copy twice, as well as the present example).
The work is best seen as a compendium of the high-water mark of medical (and quasi-medical) knowledge — an entire course of training in a single volume. Paré treats anatomy extensively, with fine wood-cuts of veins and arteries as well as internal organs. He was working in the era of increasing use of firearms on the battlefield, and so came to be an expert in the treatment of wounds inflicted by projectiles as well as amputation; indeed, he includes diagrams of prosthetics of his own design. In addition to general topics such as gynecology, Paré also treats monsters (both humans born with atypical physiology) as well as the making of medicine, both compounding from simples (i.e., plant, animal and mineral substances) and distillation.
The signature — once to the title-page and once at the end of both parts of the work (the second “part” being an account of the life and travels of Paré, indicating, generally, that the work was in fact read — is that of L(ouis?) de Jupilles. Jupilles is a commune in the Loire between Le Mans and Tours, and their lords bore that designation. More than that is difficult to ascertain.
Doe, The Works of Ambroise Paré 32; not in Adams, Garrison-Morton, Waller or Wellcome.
[1] The repair made with paper with ink manuscript verso: “Avec aussi les portraits D’Hipocrate et De galien qui sont/… Livres avec leurs aphorismes et …”
[2] The imprint presumably an odd orthography for “veuve,” i.e., the widow of Gabriel Buon.
Item #JLR0499
Price: $16,000