The Practica of Gianmatteo Ferrari da Gradi / by Arnold C. Klebs.

  • Arnold Klebs
Date:
[1924]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Practica of Gianmatteo Ferrari da Gradi / by Arnold C. Klebs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    scripts, and of less historic value. Obviously such appretiations are relative. It is the purpose of this article to show that'among medical incunabula this one holds a unique position and _that its composition evoked efforts worthy of record. In this period ofthe “resuscitation of Learning“ the author had no other,aims than those we have. He wanted to add his share to human Fowidice and moreover he and his associates collaborated to reproduce it by a mechanical process entirely unknown heretofore. If the book seems unmanageable and not readily legible we must not forget that the range of science Gianmatteo tried to cover for his fime, in ours has reached dimensions and, for of us, degrees of illegibility far greater than these incunabula. > ~ In points of record among medical documents the Editio prin- ceps of Gianmatteo’s Practica scores heavily. Whatever we may think of its contents, it is one of the most important books of which we have definite information, for if is the firsfmedical book of large size ever printed, and of the fifth or sixfh of the medical books of any size to which we can assign a definite date appearance’. As to contents, it gave in printed form for the first time a commentary on the great.school book on therapeutics, Rhazes’ “ninth book to Almansor*, with fragments of ifs text and, with Bagellardo’s short treatise on children’s diseases, it is also the first printed work wriffen by a contemporary. In- cunabula may be nothing else but manuscripts multiplied by the press in the last half of the fifteenth century. Offen if is asser- ted that their study can reveal nothing that is not revealed\by manuscripts. Never having studied manuscripts systematically, I cannot tell if this is so. I can only tell what the study of in- cunabula has revealed to me. All sources of a given time, that throw light on conditions as they really were, musf appeal to the historian. He must be free from conventional shackles, wandering Siegfriedlike through virgin forests, listening fo the twittering of the birds, to the “Waldweben“, able to understand 1 Scholderer’s list: “Medical books printed before 1481“, will soon form an indispensable basis for future studies of medical incunabula. It is in press and will appear with a discussion of the§ ie by the late Sir William Osler who had hoped to present it when the War came fo inferrupf and re- tard the arduous task of bibliographic comparison and Verification. I have to thank Mr. Scholderer for placing at my disposal the proof sheets and for helping me in every possible way, by letter as ve as personally in the De- partment of Printed Books of the British Museum.
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