KETHAM, Johannes de - Johannes de - Fasciculus medicinae. Ve - Lot 365

KETHAM, Johannes de - Johannes de - Fasciculus medicinae. Venice, Gregorius de Gregoriis, 1513. In-folio, (32) ff, bastard gothic car., numerous ornate lettering, ten full-page woodcuts including the title and a plate of diagrams (temperaments and analytical vessels), light dampening marg., old annotations marg., a few small wormholes without affecting the text, soft vellum (reuse of leaves from an earlier manuscript). ESSLING 591. SANDER 3751. WELLCOME I, 3545. CHOULANT 121. Last edition printed by Gregorius de Gregoriis, who published the Fasciculus seven times from the princeps edition in 1491 to this one. It is similar to the previous editions, featuring woodcuts copied from the original edition (1491) and especially from the 1493 edition, with the addition of four new plates. The woodcuts were attributed to an artist of the Gentile Bellini School, sometimes to the illustrator of The Dream of Poliphilo, sometimes to Mantegna or to Gentile Bellini himself. The Fasciculus is a collection of treatises circulating since the 13th century and augmented by Mondino's Anathomia, first published in Pavia in 1478. It is said to have been compiled by Ketham (Johannes von Kirchheim), a German physician who taught in Vienna around 1460 and lived in Venice towards the end of the 15th century. First printed book containing anatomical representations. These are a departure from the stereotypes of medieval tradition, with more realistic figures, such as the anatomical woman, who is seated instead of squatting. Some spectacular plates bear witness to medical life in Renaissance Venice: a consultation scene, a doctor visiting a plague victim, a dissection lesson.