Observationum medicarum... centuria quarta

First Description of Aortic Stenosis

RIVIERE, Lazare (1589-1655). Observationum medicarum, & curationum insignium centurae tres. . . . Edited by Simeon Jacoz. 4to. [8], 311, [9]pp. Lyons: Antoine Cellier, 1659. 225 x 167 mm. Speckled sheep c. 1659, rubbed, small wormhole in front cover. Some foxing, browning & dampstaining, old repair to one leaf. Very good copy. Old signature and notes on endpapers.

First Edition. Riviere was the first to describe stenosis of the aortic valve, from a case that he treated in 1646. GM 2727 cites Riviere's description of this condition in his Opera medica universa (1674), of which the present work is the first edition; the description appears here on p. 177, and is entitled "Cordis palpitatio & pulsus inaequalitas." Riviere also brought Paracelsian iatrochemistry into the curriculum of the University of Montpellier, and it was under his auspices that Alexander Fraser introduced the Harviean theory of the circulation into the University's curriculum in 1636. An edition of the present work was published in The Hague in the same year as this Lyons edition. As Riviere was French it is reasonable to presume that the Lyons edition was first. Hirsch. Norman 1837. Willius & Dry, p. 58. Thorndike VIII, p. 518.

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