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1543 - Medicine – Urology
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Estimate €1,400 - €1,800
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Description
Medicine – Urology Actuarius, Johannes De urinis libri VII, translated by Ambrosio Leone. A. Thylesii’s treatise on colours. Paulus Aeginetus’s treatise on crises and decisive days. With full-page woodcut text, a woodcut printer’s mark and numerous figurative woodcut initials. Basel, A. Cratander, 1529. Small 8°. 8 leaves, 443 (recte 447) pp. Brown calfskin binding in the style of the period with blind embossing on the covers, gilt spine and spine label (spine and edges faded). First complete Latin translation (only this edition cited in Garr.-M.) of the second major work by ‘the last, truly outstanding Byzantine physician’ (Diepgen). – Durling 2577. – Wellcome I, 26. - See in detail Voswinckel, *Der schwarze Urin*, pp. 49 ff. - Contains ‘astute and meticulous observations; for example, the formation of black urine is attributed to a chill, etc.’ (Hirsch). This work “later came to be held in high regard and is, in fact, to be ranked far above the work of Theophilos, which deals with the same subject, for despite its dependence on predecessors, particularly Galen, it demonstrates critical thinking and the author’s own experience. Joannes keeps himself more or less free from the fanciful speculations of contemporary uroscopy and is clear that urine examination is not the only, but merely one of the many methods by which a diagnosis is reached” (Diepgen). - “Actuarius was the first to use a graduated glass for its examination.” (Garrison/Morton 2666). - “In his comprehensive treatise on urine, written in the 13th century, he maintained that every illness could be identified through urine examination (uroscopy) and regarded the urine glass (matula) used for this purpose as an analogue of the human body. This uroscopic theory of representation is also found, in a variation, in the 16th century in the distilling flask used by the alchemist Leonhard Thurneysser”. – Partly slightly browned, bookplate on the inside cover. Medicine. – Urology. – The most important and comprehensive systematic reference work on urine examination (uroscopy) from the entire Middle Ages. Actuarius summarised and expanded upon the entire body of urological knowledge from antiquity (particularly that of Galen). His seven books describe, with a level of detail unprecedented at the time, the diagnosis of diseases based on the colour, consistency and sediments (deposits) of urine. Brown calfskin binding in the style of the period, with blind-stamped decoration on the covers, gilt spine and spine label (spine and edges faded). This lot is subject to standard tax. A 24.95% buyer’s premium is payable on the hammer price, and 7% (Books and Art) or 19% VAT (Manuscripts, Screenprints, Offset Prints, Photographs) is payable on the final invoice amount within the European Union. This lot is subject to standard taxation. A 24.95% buyer’s premium applies to the hammer price, and 7% (books and art) or 19% VAT (manuscripts, screen prints, offset prints and photographs) applies to the final invoice amount within the European Union.
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About the sale Valuable books, prints, historical photographs
Auction location
Auction time 10/24/2026 at 10:00 AM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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