Cheiroplotheke (Greek) seu Armamentarium chirurgicum. Opus posthumum . . - In quo tot, tam veterum ac recentiorum instrumenta ab authore correcta, quam noviter ab ipso inventa. . . Nunc primum in lucem editum by SCULTETUS, Johannes - 1655

Ulm: Balthasar Kühnen, 1655. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Folio - over 12 - 15" tall. Ulm: Balthasar Kühnen, 1655. [2], 10, 132, [4] pp. Title-page printed in red and black, woodcut printer's device, text in double column, 43 engraved plates. Little evenly browned internally, a few spots in places, title with vertical screase, most leaves with damp-softening at fore-margin, 14 plates trimmed close to or just into plate frame at fore-margin, fore-edge of 11 plates remargined, plate 20 cropped into plate but not affecting images, fore-edge of text pp. 37-47, 54, 59-60 remargined just touching text block, final pages chipped at fore-margin. [Bound with:] BROWNE, Joannis. Myographia Nova sive Musculorum omnium in Corpore Humano hactenus repertorium accuratissima descriptio . . . Amsterdam: Johann Wolters, 1694. [16], 90, [4] pp., engraved allegorical title, letterpress title printed in red and black, 1 folding table, 2 engraved plates outside pagination and 38 full page engravings inside pagination, general index at end. Damp-staining and mould-softening of fore-margin. Two works in one volume. Folio (352 x 220 mm). Bound in 18th century sprinkled calf, spine with rich gilt-decoration, 6 raised bands and gilt-lettering in first comparment, marbled edges and endpapers (joints partly split at spine ends, rubbing of boards, wear to extremities, corners scuffed). ----

Norman 1912; Heirs of Hippocrates 466; Garrison-Morton 5571; NLM/Krivatsy 10746; Waller 8792; VD 17, 39:153208L - RARE FIRST EDITION of the Armamentarium (Arsenal of Surgery), a work of lasting importance, published a decade after the author's death by his nephew, Johannes Scultetus the Younger. Numerous editions in quarto and octavo followed but none others in folio with plates on this grand scale. Scultetus (or Schultes), pupil of Hieronymus Fabricius ab Aquapendente and Adriaan van de Spiegel at Padua, himself city physician of Ulm, was rivalled only by Fabry von Hilden as the leading surgeon in Germany. Scultetus invented many new surgical devices and bandages, among them the many-tailed "Scultetus bandages" used for abdominal wounds. His Armamentarium gives a complete picture of 17th-century surgical practice. Of the 43 large engravings, 22 form a comprehensive catalogue of all known surgical instruments of the period, while the rest illustrate the brutal methodology of operations dealing with broken or dislocated limbs, amputations, cancers, obstetrical delivery by forceps, eye problems, tooth extractions and even neurosurgery, with special attention to bandaging. One hundred case reports are included in the text.
The second bound-in work is a later edition in Latin of Browne's Compleat Treatise of the Muscles. John Browne, physician to Charles II, James II, and William III, was surgeon to St Thomas's Hospital. His treatise on the muscles was plagiarised from the works of Casserio and Molins, but is the first such book in which the names of the muscles are printed on the figures. References: NLM/Krivatsy 1827; Wellcome II p.251. - Visit our website to see more images!