What Galen Has To Say about Overeating, Indolence, and Dissipation

LIBER DE PLENITUDINE. [with] POLYBIUS. DE SALUBRI VICTUS RATIONE PRIVATORUM.

GALENUS, CLAUDIUS.

([Paris]: [Simon du Bois] apud Chrestien Wechel, 1528). 265 x 185 mm. (10 1/2 x 7 1/2"). 25, 3 pp. (printed on 14 leaves). First Separate Edition of "Plenitudine."

Old (contemporary?) limp vellum, all edges dyed. Historiated woodcut initial beginning each section. Faint ink underlining throughout. Durling 1917; Wellcome I 2600; USTC 145959. Upper cover splayed, vellum a bit rumpled and soiled, but the unsophisticated binding solid and harmless; several very neat repairs internally (including to title page), other very minor flaws, but the text with no significant condition problems.

This volume contains uncommon medical texts by Galen of Pergamon (129 - ca. 216 AD) and Polybius (ca. 200 - ca. 118 BC). The first 12 leaves (and the recto of the 13th) are taken up with the first separately printed appearance of Galen's "De Plenitudine," dealing with "plethora," or excess sanguinity--the accumulation of too much blood because of overeating, indolence, or dissipation. Following this is a much shorter work, beginning on the verso of the 13th leaf and concluding on the verso of the 14th, "De Salubri Victus Ratione Privatorum," dealing with healthful diets for the layperson, which is sometimes attributed to Hippocrates. These two works were published as part of a larger book, which additionally included an herbal by Apuleius (ca. 124 - ca. 170 AD) and a much later medical text by Antonio Benivieni (1443-1502). (ST16379-132)

Price: $550.00