1590–1599

1590 CE

#6743.1

Bibliotheca medica. Sive catalogus illorum, qui ex professo artem medicam in hunc usque annum scriptis illustrarunt.

The first systematic medical bibliography. Includes an annotated list of 1,224 authors writing in Latin, lists of French, German, and Italian writers, and other material. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1590 CE

#3343

De compositione medicamentorum; De morbis oculorum, & aurium….

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

1590 CE

#2244

Historia natural y moral de las Indias.

One of the earliest detailed and realistic descriptions of the New World. Acosta hypothesized that the indigenous peoples of Latin America had migrated from Asia. He also divided the native peoples into three barbaria…

1590 CE

#10962

Libellus Rogerii Baconi Angli doctissimi mathematici et medici, De retardandis senectutis accidentibus et de sensibus conservandis.... opera Johannis Williams Oxoniensis.

Translated into English by Richard Browne as The cure of old age and preservation of youth by Roger Bacon, a Franciscan frier (London, 1683). Digital facsimile of the 1683 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

1591 CE

#6468

De medicina Aegyptiorum, libri quatuor.

The first significant work on the history of Egyptian medicine, and one of the first European studies of non-European medicine. Alpini became professor of botany at Padua after having spent three years in Egypt. Frenc…

1591 CE

#13351

L'horto dei semplici di Padova, oue si vede primieramente la forma di tutta la pianta con le sue misure: & indi i suoi partimenti distinti per numeri in ciascuna arella, intagliato in rame.

First catalogue of the Orto botanico di Padova, the oldest academic botanical garden that remains in its original location., Digital facsimile from fc.cab.unipd.it at this link.

1591 CE

#6743.2

Nomenclator scriptorum medicorum. Hoc est: elenchus eorum qui artem medicam suis scriptis illustrarunt, secundum locos communes ipsius medicinae.

The first medical subject bibliography, arranged under very broad subject headings with indexes of authors and subjects. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1591 CE

#8850

Primera parte de los problemas y secretos maravillosos de las Indias. (All published).

Includes plant and mineral remedies of New Spain as well as natural history details. See DEUCHLER, W. Juan de Cárdenas. Eim Beitrag zur Geschichte der spanischem Naturbetrachtung und Medizin im Mexiko währ…

1592 CE

#379

Theatrum anatomicum infinitis locis auctum, ad morbos accommodatum....

Includes historical data. Bauhin was professor of anatomy at Basle.

1593 CE

#5566

De gangraena et sphacelo.

Fabricius, the “Father of German Surgery”, was the first to advocate the amputation above the gangrenous or injured part. He is accredited with the first amputation of the thigh. In his work he makes no re…

1593 CE

#44

Kitāb al-Qānūn fial-ţibb. [Libri V Canonis medicinae.]

Title transliterated. Text and title page (except imprint) are in Arabic. This is the first printing of the text in Arabic of Book V of al-Qānūn. See also S. M. Afnan, Avicenna, his life and works. London, 1958.

1593 CE

#756

Quaestionum peripateticum, libri V.

A greatly expanded second edition. The results of tying a vein and the centripetal flow in veins were first recorded in print by Cesalpino (lib. ii, Qu. xvii, p. 234). See the English translation, with commentary, of …

1594 CE

#10373

Alphabet anatomic, auquel est contenue l'explication exacte des parties du corps humain: Réduites en tables selon l'ordre de dissection ordinaire, avec l'ostéologie et plusieurs observations particulières. Avec l'osteologie, & plusieurs observations particulieres.

This innovative didactic work divided the study of anatomy into 91 tables, set in type, but without images. It was unusually popular, with eleven editions in the seventeenth century as well as translations into Latin …

1594 CE

#3669

La chirurgie françoise recueillie des antiens médecins et chirurgiens.

Guillemeau was Paré’s son-in-law. His splendidly illustrated work is of special importance for dentistry and for surgery for cleft lip. It describes pyorrhea alveolaris for the first time and is also the …

1595 CE

#2667

De iis qui morborum simulant deprehendendis liber.

The first treatise on feigned diseases.

1595 CE

#6930

Magni Hippocratis medicorum omnium facile principis, opera omnia quae extant in viii sectiones....

The French humanist physician Foës produced the first Greek & Latin edition of the complete extant works of Hippocrates. His edition was the most significant before that of Littré.

1596 CE

#5567

A discourse on the whole art of chyrurgerie.

The first systematic work on the whole subject of surgery written in England. Lowe was the founder of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. This was the first medical organization in Great Britain to incl…

1596 CE

#1594

A new discourse of a stale subject, called the Metamorphosis of Aiax. Written by Misacmos to his friend Philostilpnos.

Harington invented a water-closet in which the disposal of excreta was for the first time controlled by mechanical means. He published several tracts on the device, the first appearing in 1596. These were elegantly re…

1596 CE

#12003

Catalogus arborum, fruticum, ac plantarum tam indigenarum, quam exoticarum, in horto Johannis Gerardi civis et chirurgi Londinensis nascentium.

This was the catalogue of John Gerarde's garden at Holborn, where he introduced exotic trees, fruits, and plants from the New World, and also grew widely available English plants. The text was very basic, being essent…

1596 CE

#7968

De naturali vinorum historia de vinis Italiae et de conviviis antiquorum libri septem....Accessit de factitiis ac cervisiis de q[ue] Rheni, Galliae, Hispaniae et de totius Europa vinis et de omni vinorum usu compendiaria tractatio.

A comprensive study of the production, storage, characteristics, and use of wines. Book two considers wine in relation to health. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1596 CE

#6144

La commare o riccoglitrice.

First Italian book on obstetrics. It is a work of importance for the study of the history of Caesarean section; in it Mercurio advocated the Caesarean operation in cases of contracted pelvis.

1596 CE

#7117

Reliqua librorum Friderici II. Imperatoris, De arte venandi cum avibus, cum Manfredi Regis additionibus. Ex membranis vetustis nunc primum edita. Albertus Magnus De falconibus, asturibus, & accipitribus.

Books I-II of De arte venandi cum avibus, edited by Marcus Welser from a very old, incomplete defective manuscript, which lacked Books III-IV. More than a dissertation on hunting, this work is considered the first zoo…

1597 CE

#437

Anatomica corporis virilis et muliebris historia.

1597 CE

#5734

De curtorum chirurgia per insitionem.

Tagliacozzi of Bologna became famous for his work on rhinoplasty, but Paré and Fallopius both abused him and his work, and the Church (which regarded such operations as meddling with the work of God) exhumed hi…

1597 CE

#1718

De vitiis vocis libri duo. In quibus non solum vocis definitio traditur, et explicatur, sed illius differentiae, instrumenta, et causae aperiuntur. Vltimo de vocis conseruatione, praeseruatione, ac vitiorum eius curatione tractatur. Opus ad vtilitatem concionatorum praecipuè editum. Cui accedit consilium de raucedine ac methodus testificandi in quibusuis casibus medicis oblatis, postquam formulae quaedam testationum proponantur.

Codronchi's Methodus testificandi, inquibusvis casibus medicis oblatis first published in the above (pp. 148-232), is considered the earliest significant work on forensic medicine. Digital facsimile from Google Books …

1597 CE

#3244

De vitiis vocis, libri duo.

First treatise devoted solely to diseases of the larynx. (See also No. 1718.)

1597 CE

#6013

Gynaeciorum sive de mulierum tum communibus, turn gravidarum, parientum, et puerperarum affectibus et morbis, libri Graecorum, Arabum, Latinorum veterum et recentium quotquot extant, parti nunc primum editi, partim vero denuo recogniti, emendati, necessariis imaginibus exornati, & optimorum scriptorum autoritatibus illustrati.

Spach was the editor of this collection of gynecological writings. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1597 CE

#802

Opusculum physiologum & anatomicum in duos libellos distinctum: In quibus primùm, de integritatis & corruptionis virginum notis, deinde, de grauiditate & partu naturali mulierum in quo ossa pubis & ilium distrahi, dilucidè tractatur ....

In 1595 Pineau demonstrated the vestigial foramen ovale in the adult heart, settling the question of the perviousness of the septum of the heart. His work was first published in 1597. He published this study in a fran…

1597 CE

#11381

The garden of health conteyning the sundry rare and hidden vertues and properties of all kindes of simples and plants, together with the maner how they are to be vsed and applyed in medicine for the health of mans body, against diuers diseases and infirmities most common amongst men. Gathered by the long experience and industrie of William Langham, practitioner in phisicke.

An alphabetically arranged handbook of herbal remedies. The title page was misprinted 1579, but the work was actually printed in 1597. A list of the plants discussed is available from Early English Books Online at thi…

1597 CE

#1820

The herball or generall historie of plantes.

Gerard is perhaps the best remembered of ail the English herbalists. The most important edition of his book is the second, published by T. Johnson in 1633 (reprinted in facsimile, New York, Dover, 1975). Johnson great…

1598 CE

#285

Dell’anotomia, et dell’infermità del cavallo.

In 1598 Conte Ottavio Ruini edited and had published in Bologna, with a dedication to Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, Dell'anotomia [sic], et dell'infirmita del cavallo [Book ii: Dell'infirmita del cavallo] by il marche…

1598 CE

#12829

Discursos del amparo de los legitimos pobres y reduccion de los fingidos, y de la fundacion y principio de los albergues destos Reynos, y amparo de la milicia dellos.

In this rather utopian work with emblematic illustrations Pérez presented a plan for a state funded public health system and poor relief program. His ten essays concerned hospital sanitation, kitchen gardens, c…

1598 CE

#10727

Discvrsos del amparo de los legitimos pobres.

A plan for a state-funded public health system and poor relief program. An emblem introduces each of the ten essays, which treat hospital sanitation and kitchen gardens, care of disabled veterans, prisoners and the in…

1598 CE

#6794

Lexicon medicum Graeco-Latinum…ex Hippocrate et Galeno desumptum.

The earlier lexicon of Gorraeus formed the basis of this work, which was reprinted in several editions, the last in 1792.

1598 CE

#13347

Onomatologia, seu nomenclatura stirpium quae in Horto Regio Monspeliensi recens constructo coluntur.

The first catalogue of medicinal plants in the Jardin des plantes de Montpellier, founded by Richer de Belleval in 1593. This was the first medical botanical garden in France. Reprinted in Opuscules de Pierre Richer d…

1598 CE

#2262

The cures of the diseased, in remote regions. Preventing mortalitie, incident in forraine attempts, of the English nation.

This book is the earliest work in English devoted to tropical medicine. It discusses sunstroke, tabardilla (possibly typhus or yellow fever), prickly heat, dysentery, erysipelas and scurvy. Facsimile reproduction, wit…

1599 CE

#7553

Dell'historia naturale di Ferrante Imperato napolitano Libri XXVIII. Nella quale ordinatamente si tratta della diversa condition di miniere, e pietre. Con alcune historie di piante et animali; sin hora non date in luce.

The famous illustration of Imperato's museum or "cabinet of curiosities" published in this work was the first pictorial representation of the natural history research collection formed by Renaissance humanist". The co…

1599 CE

#13240

Hippostologie, c’est a dire, discours des os du cheval.

The first work on equine anatomy published in France. Héroard wrote the work in 1579 and the manuscript was preserved in the library of Château de Chantilly, but it was not published until 1599, one year …

1599 CE–1667 CE

#290

Opera omnia. 13 vols.

Aldrovandi, first director of the botanical garden at Bologna, was a prolific writer. Some of his writings made their first appearance in print after his death. He designed them as a whole to form an enormous illustra…