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Description
[MEDICINE]
LAURENS (André du):
The Works of Master André du Laurens, Sieur de Ferrières, Councillor and Chief Physician to the Most Christian King of France and Navarre, Henry the Great, and his Chancellor at the University of Montpellier. Translated from Latin into French by Théophile Gelée, town physician of Dieppe.
Paris. Published by Nicolas and Jean de la Coste, 1639.
In folio. Pastiche binding in the style of an antique binding (Bradel style), full vellum, ivory in colour. Smooth spine. Metal clasps, mounted on fawn-coloured leather ribbons.
14 pp (Chapter headings), 597 pages and 19 pages for the tables of contents
The portrait of du Laurens is missing. The half-title page (numbered A2) is missing.; 20 anatomical plates,
Pages 207 to 226 are missing [The pagination jumps from 206 to 227].
Page 247 is missing.
Page 309 is numbered 389.
Bound with:
André du LAURENS:
Second Part of the Works, divided into four sections:
- The first explains the nature of the crisis, all its variations, and the critical signs.
- The second deals with the marvellous ability of the kings of France to cure scrofula by mere touch, its various forms, causes, signs and treatment through the art of medicine.
- The third deals with the preservation of sight; melancholic diseases, catarrhs and old age.
- The fourth deals with gout, leprosy and syphilis.
5 pp. (Table of Chapters), up to page numbered 376. The following pages are missing...
Page 97, numbered 197. The following pages, 199, 201 etc...
Page 259, numbered 279.
Page 285, numbered 205.
Page 324 and following, stained, partly torn at the margins.
20 fine full-page anatomical plates engraved on steel after Vesalius and others (incomplete series),
Significant foxing.
Edition published by Théophile Gelée, a doctor from Dieppe who was a pupil of Du Laurens at the Faculty of Medicine in Montpellier.
Du Laurens was born in Arles and died in Paris in 1609. From Montpellier, he was summoned to Paris to serve as personal physician to King Henry IV, then as chief physician to Marie de’ Medici, and finally as the king’s chief physician in 1606. The work comprises twelve books on anatomy, followed by three books on acute conditions, concluding with a General Method for Prognosis; two books on the Discourse on Scrofula; four discourses on the preservation of sight, melancholic diseases, catarrhs and old age; and concludes with three short treatises on gout, leprosy and syphilis. Both a distinguished practitioner of his science and a disseminator—or scientific communicator—he sought, as Évelyne Berriot-Salvadore puts it, ‘to convince doctors [], to captivate curious minds.’
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
About the sale
Bibliophilia – A fine selection of antique and modern books
Auction location
Auction time
10/15/2026 at 1:00 PM
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