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Description
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Johannes Mesue., Text in Gothic letters in double columns, some woodcut initials, and spaces with guide letters; washed; recased in its original calf backed wooden boards, four clasps, the thongs renewed. The penultimate incunable edition of what "remained for centuries the standard text-book of pharmacy in the West" (Sarton), with the commentary of Mondino, the great anatomist, and other texts including Abulcasis' Liber servitoris. Mesue "was for centuries the authority on the composition of medicaments. The book was not only in use in practically every European pharmacy but in addition became the basis of the later official pharmacopoeias. The Grabadin [or Antidotarium, contained here] is, as Sudhoff calls it, 'the pharmacological quintessence of Arabian therapeutics' and contains the entire armamentarium of compounded medicines which we owe to the Arabians. The arrangement is like that of the later pharmacopoeias. The compounded medicines are divided into groups according to their forms - confections, juleps, syrups, etc. - the monographs containing directions for the preparation of the respective products and also notes on their medical uses" (Edward Kremers and George Urdang, History of Pharmacy, 1940, p. 21). Much of the basic terminology of pharmacy, words such as julep and syrup, derives from the Arabic. EI, III, pp. 872-73; Sezgin, III, pp. 231-36. H *IIIII; Choulant p. 355; Goff M516; Klebs 680.14; Sarton I 728., Imprint from colophon., Printer's device on recto of last leaf., Capital spaces with guide letters., Signatures: A⁸ b-z⁸ [et ]⁸ [con]⁸ [rum]⁸ 2a-2p⁸ chi2, Main Heritage Vault, RS79 .I266 1495, Book, Item-ID: i10036957, BIB-ID: 1005498 |
