1528 · [ Strassburg
by Theophrastus
[ Strassburg: H. Sybold, 1528. Apparently the reprint of an unrecorded 1525 edition. Small 8vo, 96 unnumbered leaves, printed in Roman types with Greek sidenotes. With 2 nice 9-line historicated initials. Bound in contemporary all-over bindstamped calf, rebacked. Some marginal staining, a very nice copy. Ritter, Bib. Alsace., 2321; Hoffmann III, 729; Pritzel, Thesaurus Literaturae Botanicae, 9187; Strasbourg Imprints p. 248, no. S3.1.2; not in Bird; Adams or the British Library Catalogue. Scarce, the OCLC lists just three copies (NLM, VXG, PPC). This is the first edition of Theophrastus to apparently be published specifically as a medical textbook. This contains books vi to ix of the De Historia Plantarum as well as the first three chapters of Pliny's Historia Naturalis. This was translated by Theodore Gaza (1400-1475) that was originally printed in 1483. H. S. Reed notes that Theophrastus was the founder of Botanical science and one of the greatest botanists of all time. The printer, Seybold was himself a physician, and "probably developed the publication of medical manuals on his own press as an adjunct to his practice ... He was instrumental in incorporating the knowledge of the Greek physicians into the standard medical corpus"[Chrisman, Lay Culture, Learned Culture 36, 174]. The interesting binding is tooled with borders of 2 double ruled frames enclosing strapwork with dots in the small rectangular spaces, and large central panels (different on the front and back covers) of geometrical designs and acrons and a foliate pattern. The title is written on the edges in a contemporary hand.
(Inventory #: 17850)
(413) 447-8010
