The surgical section of Albucasis’s Altasrif, the first rational, complete and illustrated treatise on surgery and surgical instruments. The author was an  Arab Muslim physician and surgeon who lived in Al-Andalus. During the Middle Ages this was the leading textbook on surgery until it was superseded by Saliceto. The work was first published in print in the Latin translation by Gerard of Cremona, in this collective edition, in which Guy de Chauliac's surgery was the lead title. Besides its significance in general surgery and for the history of surgical instruments, Albucasis's work was “of great importance for the development of practical dentistry” (Hoffmann-Axthelm). Chapter 28 discusses excision of epulis. Chapter 29 deals with calculus. Albucasis understood that calculus on the teeth is a major cause of periodontal disease and gave explicit instructions for scaling the teeth, describing the instruments which he invented for this purpose. Chapter 30 covers tooth extraction, and Chapter 33 contains one of the earliest discussions of tooth prostheses, and describes some oral surgery procedures. The work contains some of the earliest illustrations of dental instruments. See No. 5550.  

Note that Albucasis's surgery, a work of significant practical value, was the last, or one of the last, of the medieval classics of surgery to be printed. ISTC no. ig00564000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.  

A superbly illustrated 14th century MS of Albucasis was reproduced in full color facsimile as Codex Vindobonensis Series Nova 2641, Graz, Akademische Druck, 1979.

An edition of the Latin translation of Maimonides’ Aphorismi (first published, Venice, 1489), together with a compilation of the works of Mesue, Avenzoar, Galen, etc. Page for page reprint, Venice, 1508. See No. 6495.7. ISTC No. im00078000.

Klebs 433.1. These were the first genuine texts of Galen published in print in the original Greek.

Includes the first illustrations of the viscera in a printed book. The four woodcuts are derived with modifications from Peyligk (No. 363.2). This work also contains the first mention ever of the word anthropology (in Latin). Digital facsimile from BIUSanté (Paris) at this link.

“The first systematic and sufficiently detailed examination of the human body since Mundinus, far outstripping the latter in scientific accuracy” (Lind, Pre-Vesalian anatomy, 10, also 141-56). See also Nos. 1589.1 and 1758.1.

This work was prepared for and dedicated to Lucrezia Borgia by her physician, Bonaccioli, who guided her through 14 pregnancies, the last of which was fatal to both mother and child. The first three chapters concern female genital anatomy, sexual intercourse, fertilization, formation of the embryo, development of the fetus (and infusion of the soul). The final six chapters concern signs of pregnancy, its difficulties and their cures, causes of abortion, vaginal discharge, gestation, the mechanics of birth, midwifery, lactation, care of the newborn, dentition, etc.

 "... a descriptive anatomy in the style of Mundinus. It concludes with a final chapter on the praise of dissection. He expresses the need for a clinical examination rather than uncritical trust in the authorities “since in it we see the truth and contemplate its revelations as the works of nature lie under our eyes… but those who trust only the monuments of literature… are often deceived and entrust opinion rather than truth to their minds.”^[1] He later describes a postmortem examination of a woman who had died of syphilis and the disease’s effects on her bones.^[2] Benedetti critiqued those anatomists who trusted in the authorities more than their own experience: “Aristotle has had so much authority for so many centuries that even those things which [physicians] have not seen they will affirm to exist, even without experiment.”^[3] Benedetti valued personal observation over blind trust in the authorities and even, shockingly for the time, corrected Aristotle. “Aristotle believes that the nerves first arise from the heart… but almost all of them (as is more evidently established) are perceived to originate in large part from the brain….”^[4]  (Wikipedia article on Alessandro Benedetti, accessed 5-2020). 

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

First printing of an incomplete medieval Latin translation by Jacques Despars of the main medical work of Alexander, a Byzantine physician from Tralles in Lydia, Asia Minor (now  Aydin, Turkey). Digital facsimile  from Google Books at this link. 

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The earliest separately printed treatise on gout by the physician/humanist grandfather of the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola. Giovanni Savonarola emphasized the dietary causes of gout, and the dangers of eating rich food. He discussed recommended moderation in diet, and discussed the nutritional aspects of various foods.

French physician and writer Symphorien Champier's biographical study of famous medical writers, De medicine claris scriptoribus in quinque partibus tractatus, issued as part of his Libelli duo, has been called the first history of medicine written after De medicina by the first century CE Roman writer Aulus Cornelius Celsus. The brief listing of the writings of these famous physicians which it includes is considered the first published bibliography of medical literature after Galen's bibliography of his own writings, De libris propriis liber, which was written in the second century CE, but not printed until 1525, and the brief bibliography of Galen's writings which was first published in Articella seu Opus artis medicinae,edited by Franciscus Argilagnes (Venice, 1483). 

Breslauer & Folter, Bibliography: Its History and Development (1984) No. 10. A bibliographical study of Champier by P.A. Allut appeared from Lyons in 1859; a check-list of his writings was published by J.F. Ballard and M. Pijoan in Bull. med. Libr. Ass., 1940, 28, 182-88.

Antonio Benivieni's The hidden causes of diseases was the first book on pathological anatomy, presenting the first reports of autopsies made specifically to determine the cause of death. The work records twenty post-mortem examinations performed by Benivieni or his colleagues, in which he observed gallstones, urinary calculi, scirrhous cancer of the stomach, fibrous cardiac tumor and peritonitis from intestinal perforation. Benivieni was the first physician known to have requested permission from his patients’ relatives to perform necropsies in uncertain cases. He was also one of the first physicians to study syphilis and opened his work with an account of that disease, noting its superficial manifestations (including syphlitic periostitis), and transmission of the disease to the fetus. Benivieni died before he could complete this work or arrange for its publication. His text was edited and revised from Benivieni’s manuscript by his brother Girolamo, a Florentine poet and musician, with the aid of physician Giovanni Rosati. Facsimile reproduction and English translation, 1954. Digital facsimile of the 1507 edition from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.

The Medicina Plinii was an anonymous compilation of remedies dating to the early 4th century CE ."The excerptor, saying that he speaks from experience, offers the work as a compact resource for travelers in dealing with hucksters who sell worthless drugs at exorbitant prices or with know-nothings only interested in profit.^[1] The material is presented in three books in the conventional order a capite ad calcem (“from head to toe,” in the equivalent English expression), the first dealing with treatments pertaining to the head and throat, the second the torso and lower extremities, and the third systemic ailments, skin diseases, and poisons. The book contains more than 1,100 pharmacological recipes, the vast majority of them from the Historia naturalis of Pliny the Elder. Other sources include Celsus, Scribonius Largus, and Dioscorides.^[3] Materials may be botanical, animal-derived, or metallic; processes include decoction, emulsification, calcination and fermentation. Preparations may be applied topically, or consumed. Magic, perhaps to be compared with faith healing,^[7] was a regular feature of the manuals. Most of the recipes contain a limited number of ingredients, and in contrast to more expansive and thorough collections such as the De medicamentis liber of Marcellus Empiricus, precise measurements in drachmae, denarii or other units are specified for only a few formulations. Perhaps because Pliny's name was attached to it, the book enjoyed great popularity and influence. It was frequently copied during the Middle Ages, and was often used as a handbook in monastic infirmaries" (Wikipedia article on Medicina Plinii, quoted with a few minor changes, 1-2017).

The standard version of the text is Plinii secundi iunioris qui feruntur de medicina libri tres. Corpus Medicorum Latinorum 3 (Berlin, 1964) edited by Alf Önnerfors. A digital version of this text is available from Biblioteca digitale di testi latini tardoanchi at this link.