Beschreibung:

SYDENHAM, Thomas (1624-1689). Observationes medicae circa morborum acutorum historiam et curationem. London: Andrew Clark for Walter Kettilby, 1676. 8 o (177 x 113 mm). Engraved portrait frontispiece of Sydenham by A. Blooteling after Maria Beale (single wormhole throughout and minor marginal worming to some leaves.) Comtemporary calf gilt, spine gilt lettered, Nicolas Fouquet's cipher in two compartments and the "IHS" cipher in rest (rebacked, original spine laid down); modern quarter calf folding case. Provenance : Nicolas Fouquet (cipher on spine); Paris, Jesuits (inscription on title and monogram on spine); Joseph Ignace Guillotin, 1764 (signature on front free endpaper). FIRST EDITION, of the revised version of Sydenham's book on fevers, first published in 1666 under the title Methodus curandi febres , entirely rewritten and considerably enlarged. "It contains his important study on epidemiology and is one of the fundamental texts in this branch of medicine, with numerous observations on epidemics in London from 1661 to 1675" ( Heirs of Hippocrates). The volume is from the library of Nicolas Fouquet (1615-1680), finance minister to Louis XIV in the early years of his reign. After his death the book entered the library of the College of Jesuits in Paris, and was later owned by the physician Joseph Ignace Guillotin (1738-1814), who was, in the early years of the French Revolution, responsible for reviving the decapitation machine that bears his name. Garrison-Morton 2198; Grolier Medicine 35 (this copy exhibited); Heirs of Hippocrates 549; NLM/Krivatsy 11627; Osler 994; Waller 9402; Wing S-6314; Norman 2038.