Beschreibung:

DONDIS, Jacobus de (before 1293-1359). Aggregator, sive De medicinis simplicibus . [Strassburg: R-Press type 2 (Johannes Mentelin and Adolf Rusch), ca. 1475]. Royal 2 o (402 x 282 mm). Collation: [1-5 1 0 6 8 7-8 6 9-10 1 0 11 8 12 1 0 13 8 14-16 1 0 17-18 8 19-22 1 0 23-24 6 25-26 1 0 27 8 28 1 0 29-31 8 32 1 0 ] (1/1 blank, 1/2r author's preface, signed medici(n)e doctore(m) ... Iacobu(m) paduanu(m) and dated 1385, 1/2v text, 32/10 blank). 286 leaves. 55 lines, double column, a few printed shoulder notes. Type 2:100G. 7-line and smaller spaces for initials, some with guide-letters. Flourished Lombard initials, capital strokes, paragraph marks and a few brackets in red, intermittent foliation in roman and arabic numerals and quiring supplied by the rubricator. (Dampstaining to upper margins throughout, often affecting text and causing some fraying to upper edges, minor worming to first 50 leaves.) Contemporary South-German blind-stamped leather over wooden boards, covers with large central panel tooled to a saltire design with floral stamps and repeated Maria banderoles within the bands, the inner compartments with a pair of crossed wavy double fillets and Kopfstempel tools, two different fleur-de-lys tools in outer compartments, panels at top and bottom formed by intersecting triple fillets with small rosette tools, stylized palm leaf tools bordering spine, original brass chased corner- and center-pieces with bosses (two bosses on back cover replaced) and pair of original brass fore-edge clasps, hasps and catches, hole from former chain at upper edge of back cover, five double raised cords dividing spine into six compartments, each tooled with a pair of crossed wavy fillets and Kopfstempel tools, contemporary vellum title label on upper cover in brown ink in an upright semi-gothic script, below it a contemporary paper shelfmark label with large Lombard "a" in red ink enclosing small "11" in brown ink, later paper title label in upper compartment of spine, edges stained yellow, paste-downs from a 15th-century Latin manuscript on paper concerning questions of canon law and indulgences (a few small scrapes and scuff-marks, slight worming to upper cover, discreetly restored split along upper joint, head and tail-caps worn away); modern half morocco folding case. Provenance : "Collegi hospitalensis", inscription on front free endpaper. FIRST EDITION. Giacomo de Dondi, municipal physician at Chioggia, was a versatile scholar and craftsman whose contributions ranged from horology and astronomy to balneology, a discipline that he is said to have founded. The Aggregator (also referred to as the Aggregatio medicamentorum or the Promptuarium medicamentorum ), his most extensive work, completed ca 1358, is an encyclopaedic manual of medical recipes compiled from Greek and Arabic sources. The recipes, listed alphabetically, are classified in four sections devoted to different medical conditions: abscesses (37 chapters), contusions and fractures (8 chapters), wounds (12 chapters), and ulcers (20 chapters). Although seldom cited in the standard herbal bibliographies, the work is in fact an early precursor of the herbals (later editions, all published in Venice, included several 16th-century illustrated condensed versions in Italian under the title Herbolario volgare ). IT IS ONE OF THE EARLIEST PRINTED TEXTS OF EXCLUSIVELY MEDICAL CONTENT. The traditional dating of this edition to circa 1470 is erroneous. No date earlier than 1473 can be substantiated for any of the editions from the so-called "R-Press", which may be identified with Johannes Mentelin and/or his son-in-law Adolf Rusch. The Royal folios produced at this anonymous press show no paper stocks in use before 1473. The present copy includes papers watermarked with 7-petalled flower (Briquet 6557 and 6573), 9-petalled flower (Briquet 6620), and grapes (Briquet 13049), none of which is noted earlier than 1473. The identification of the printer as Adolf Rusch is based on a letter