Books from the Library of the Medical Society of London : an exhibition 14 January to 3 April 1985 / [compiled by John Symons].

  • Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine
Date:
1985
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Books from the Library of the Medical Society of London : an exhibition 14 January to 3 April 1985 / [compiled by John Symons]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/28 (page 13)
    Michael SERVETUS Christianismi restitutio. [London, 1723.] Primarily a religious work setting out the author's antitrinitarian views. It has a section describing the dissemination of the divine spirit through the body by way of the blood and incidentally containing the first western description of the pulmonary circulation. All but three copies of the original edition printed at Vienne in 1553 were destroyed as heretical and Servetus himself was burnt at the stake. This London reprint of 1723 was suppressed by order of the Bishop of London while printing was still in progress and nine copies are believed to have survived. This was formerly in the possession of the antiquary Richard Rawlinson [1690-1755] and has his bookplate. It ends at p.252, as do most copies, although a copy in the Bodleian Library extends to p. 260. AVICENNA Kitab al-Qanun fi al-tibb. Rome: Typographia Medicea. 1593. The first printing of the Arabic text of Avicenna's Canon. Eucharius ROESSLIN [The birth of mankind.] [London: R. Watkins? before 1598.] Numerous editions were published of this English version of Roesslin's Rosengarten, which became the standard vernacular midwifery text of the 16th century. The original translation by Richard Jonas was published in 1540 and later extensively revised by Thomas Raynalde. The present edition, from which the title page and last leaf are wanting, has not previously been recorded. It is similar to the edition printed in 1598 by Richard Watkins but appears to be earlier. -13-