De natura hominis. Add: De victu; De tuenda valetudine; Medicinae lex; Iusiurandum; Demonstratio quod artes sunt; Invectiva in obtrectatores medicinae

Book Description

Rare incunable edition of this collection of Hippocratic texts, some in their first printings, and including one of the first appearances in print of the Hippocratic oath. The corpus of texts ascribed to Hippocrates of Cos , however disputed their authorship may now be, contributed unequivocally to the creation of the first system of empirical medicine based on clinical experience. De natura hominis notably introduces physiopathology in medicine and contains the first formulation of the humoral theory of disease [f. 7v], as devised either by Hippocrates or his son-in-law Polybus, which would underpin medical practice right through to the seventeenth century. This volume, edited by Andrea Brenta, comprises six additional texts, including the dietetic work, De victu, and the famed oath Iusiurandum, the appearance of which in incunable compendia such as this “secured for it a central place in the European medical consciousness” (Norman, p. 9).

One of the most famous documents in the history of medicine, ethics, and education, the Hippocratic oath has long been regarded as expressing the fundamental ethical and moral standards of the medical profession. Although Hippocrates is no longer considered the direct author of the oath, It was probably formulated in the fourth century B.C. and expresses many Hippocratic ideals. First mentioned in the first century A.D. (see Norman, 100 Books, p. 8), it became common practice, by the 1850s, for American medical students to take this oath of conduct at the completion of their studies. The text of the oath (found here on the recto of the penultimate leaf) has remained substantially unchanged since its first printing. (The familiar phrase “First, do no harm”—primum non nocere—is not included in the Hippocratic Oath, deriving instead from Hippocrates’ Epidemics. The first English translation appeared in Francisco Arceo’s 1588 Most Excellent and Compendious Method of Curing Wounds in the Head.)

            Just as the original date and authorship of the oath is obscure, so is its publishing history. The first printing of the Iusiurandum is currently believed to be in Nicolaus Perottus’s De generibus metrorum (Verona, Boninus de Boninis, c. 1475-1483) [Goff P-298; see 2001 Countway Library exhibit of incunables]. A second contender for editio princeps is Petrus Paulus Vergerius’s translation in the second edition of the Articella Hippocratis, published by Hermannus Liechtenstein in Venice on March 29, 1483. (A briefer edition of this popular compilation of Greek and Arabic medical texts in Latin, which did not include the oath, had first appeared in Padua, 1476). Four additional incunable editions of the Articella followed by 1500, but as the second was not until August 20, 1487, it is possible that at least one edition of De natura hominis, containing the oath, intervened.

            The first three incunable editions of De natura hominis and associated texts, edited by Andrea Brenta, are undated. The present edition [Klebs 519.1] has been unanimously attributed to Eucharius Silber, and ascribed a date between 1483 and 1490. Another undated Roman edition [Klebs 519.3] has been assigned by Goff and IGI to Stephan Plannck, and dated c. 1490; however, CIBN assigns that work to Georgius Herolt and gives it a date of c. 1481, which would make it the editio princeps.  A third Brentius edition [Klebs 519.2] was originally also attributed by Reichling to Silber; however, IGI now assigns it to Plannck between 1492-93. Until further typographic analysis has been completed, we follow Goff, Klebs and Hain-Copinger in ascribing priority to this Silber edition, which would place only the Perottus and possibly the March 1483 Articella versions of the Iusiurandum prior to this appearance. 

            ISTC lists the following copies of this edition in North America: College of Physicians of Philadelphia, NLM (2), and NYAM.

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