A history, based on extensive study of the classical literature, of the attitudes and practices of the Greeks and Romans concerning diet, hygiene, bathing, and exercise. This is one of the earliest books to discuss the therapeutic value of gymnastics and sports generally for the cure of disease and disability, and an important study of gymnastics in the ancient world. 

The second edition, De arte gymnastica libri sex, Venice, Juntas, 1573, was the first illustrated book on gymnastics. It contains 20 unsigned woodcuts usually attributed to Christoph Lederer of Nuremberg, who assumed the name of Coriolanus after moving to Italy. These illustrations drawn by Pirro Ligorio "can now be shown to be the result of imaginative reconstruction, or straightforward forgery...unknown to his [Mercuriale's] readers, who assumed that images confirmed the truth of what Mercuriale had deduced from the evidence of texts.... The argument and illustrations in De arte gymnastica demonstrated the prime place of gymnastics in Greece and Rome, and later, convinced Winckelmann of the importance of nudity in Greek civilization and art" (Vivian Nutton, "Mercurale, Girolamo", Grafton et al (eds.), The classical tradition [2010] pp. 582-83.) Digital facsimile of the 1573 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Includes the first printed edition of the Greek text and Latin translation by Mercuriale of Alexander's De vermis epistola.  Alexander's original description of worms and vermifuges make him the first parasitologist. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

The first systematic textbook on diseases of the skin. English translation by R. L. Sutton Jr, Kansas City, Missouri, Lowell Press, 1986. Mercuriali enjoyed a great reputation in his day; he wrote on many medical subjects, including medical gymnastics. See No. 1986.1.

This work on cosmetics contains Tagliacozzi’s first publication on rhinoplasty – De reficiendo naso – a letter written to Mercuriale in response to inaccurate statements about Tagliacozzi's methods made by Mercuriale in De decoratione (1585).

The De oculorum et aurium represents the first “clinical” manual on diseases of the ear. Mercuriali was primarily concerned with treatment.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

This critical edition, based upon the 1601 edition, the last edition published in Mercuriale's lifetime, includes the Latin text and English translation, reproductions of the woodcuts attributed to Coriolan and the original drawings by Pirro Ligorio for the illustrations, a full bibliography of Mercuriale's writings, translator's notes, and Jean-Michel Agasse's, "Girolamo Mercuriale—Humanism and physical culture in the Renaissance", a treatise of about 150 pages.