Field surgery.- Gersdorff (Hans von) Feldtbuch der Wund-Arzney, enlarged

Field surgery.- Gersdorff (Hans von) Feldtbuch der Wund-Arzney, enlarged edition, collation: [par]4 a-z Aa-Bb4 Cc6 A4 B6 aa4 B-R4 S6 complete with final blank, 24 full-page woodcut anatomical and medical illustrations, several illustrations of surgical instruments, 36 chiromancy hands, eleven double physiognomic portraits, portrait of Johannes ab Indagine by Hans Baldung Grien dated 1540, 33 astrological diagrams and allegorical chariots (fols. N1r-R3r), with the two fugitive sheets, featuring 2 extremely rare folding woodcut plates (382x265 mm) representing an anatomical figure showing internal organs (the 'viscera-manikin') and a skeleton, historiated initials, woodcut printer’s device on colophon, repairs to title margins and final leaves, tiny wormholes on many leaves, some marginal stains, tear repaired to one folding plate, contemporary annotations on verso of last leaf and rear pastedown. contemporary blind-stamped half pigskin over wooden boards, wooden corners worn, lacking clasps, some worming to covers, folio (289 x 188mm.), Strassburg, Hans Schotten, 1540. *** First edition of this collection of texts, which includes, along with the German translations of the famous treatise on surgical instruments by Albucasis (Abu al-Qasim Khalaf ibn Abbas al-Zahrawi, 936-1013) and the Chiromantia by Johannes ab Indagine (d. 1537), Gersdorff's Feldtbuch (first printed in 1517), the first book to illustrate actual surgical procedures and one of the very first illustrated books on surgery ever published. It is arguably the most advanced surgical manual of its time, containing original information on amputations, early anaesthesia, and the treatment of gunshot wounds, all accompanied by the very best surgical illustrations of the period. “The practical nature of Gersdorff's book and its fine illustrations caused it to become very popular and it was frequently referred to, widely quoted and freely plagiarized. The work went through at least twelve editions between the time of its first publication in 1517 and the early seventeenth century. The book also appeared in several Latin and Dutch editions” (Heirs of Hippocrates, 149). The edition is rightly famous for its numerous woodcut illustrations, many of which are full-page. Among these illustrations are the first published depictions of an amputation and brain dissections. The woodcuts are partly attributed to the German artist Johann Ulrich Wächtlin or Wechtlin. Of particular interest are the two folding plates, also attributed to Wechtlin, which are not usually found in copies of the present edition. The sheets were published by Johann Schott in Strasbourg in 1517 and included in the first edition of Gersdorff's treatise as individual fugitive sheets to be hung on walls. They were subsequently adapted to volume form, but never completely lost their original function. “Fugitive sheets (fliegende Blätter) with pre-Vesalian anatomy, representing whole figures with the names of the parts or explanatory texts, were published either on a single broadside or on two sheets, each with printing on one side only. In this period several appeared. They were generally intended to disseminate popular information, or to give instruction to barbers and surgeons, and were probably to be hung up in their anterooms. [...] They were, in the nature of things, predestined to be scattered and lost, and, on this account, are now all of them exceedingly rare” (Choulant-Franck, p. 156). Literature: VD16 G 1625; Durling 2062; Choulant 27.

Estimate:£20,000

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