Encyclopaedia chirurgica rationalis

Venice: apud Ioannem Hertz, 1695. Hardcover. Very Good. Folio (330 x 220mm). [4], 616pp., [30]; [1], 92pp. (i. e. 90). Copper-plate engraved printer’s device of Hertz to tiltle. Title printed in red and black. Double column. Contemporary vellum. “Ex Libris Prosperi Selli Medicinae et Chirurgiae” above pictorial wood-engraved ex-libris by Leo Wyatt for Lord Norwich on pastedown.

Dolaeus’ surgical encyclopedia, his ‘opus magnus’ which was widely popular. Reissued several times as in this copy of 1695, the scarce first edition was printed in 1605. Dolaeus belonged to the iatrochemical school of Paracelsus and van Helmont (a branch of both chemistry and medicine). His opus magnus was this surgical encyclopedia, and as indicated on the title, is based on the principles of Galen, Paracelsus, van Helmont, Willis, Sylvius and Descartes. The encyclopedic entries deal with all manner of surgical diseases, including hernia, cancer, abscesses, ulcers, gangrene and afflictions of the sense organs, teeth and genitalia. A physician to the German nobility, Dolaeus became rich and famous through his secret “liquor antivariolosus” (presumably a remedy for smallpox); he also anticipated Cheyne in his dietary treatment of gout. Part [2] has special title page: Johannis Dolaei ... Tractatus varii. Page [31] part [2] has half title: Joh. Jacobi Waldschmidt ... et Johannis Dolaei ... Dissertationes epistolicae de rebus medicis et philosophicis. NLM/Krivatsy 3315