Pauli Aeginetae Opus De Re Medica, 1534

Pauli Aeginetae Opus De Re Medica Nunc primum integrum, Latinitate donatum per Ioannem Guinterium Andernacum, doctorem medicum. Coloniae Oera Et Impensa Ioannis Soteris Anno M. D. XXXIII. Mense Augusto. Cum gratia & privilegio ad sexennium. 
 
Nineteenth or twentieth century cloth over earlier leatherbound boards. Cloth now frayed in places, exposing portions of leather and cords. Raised bands on spine. Red page edges. Joints strong. Gutter cracking between ffep and title. Later end papers. Book has a slight curve. Scattered damp and other stains, but mostly bright. Margins well retained. Decorative and drop caps throughout. Binding tight. 16th and 17th century owner’s names in ink on title and last text leaf. 
 
Ffep, title (51) 507, rfep. 
Aa6, Bb-Cc4, Dd-Ee6, a-b6, e8, f-p6, q8, r-F6, G4, H-V6 
 
Heirs 52: Paulus Aegenita (625?-690?) “Paul of Aegina was the last of the great Byzantine physicians, the last important product of the school of Alexandria, and a compiler whose works were consulted well into the Renaissance. He was a skilled surgeon and was especially eminent in obstetrics and in surgery of the genitalia. He also devoted much attention to diseases of the heart. The present book is Paul's only remaining complete work. A Latin translation had appeared in print as early as 1489 but the present translation is based on the first Greek Aldine edition of 1528. The translator and editor is Joannes Guinterius of Andernach (see No. 259), one of the best-known humanists of his day and a teacher of Vesalius at Padua. This edition was first published in 1532 and contains extensive commentaries by the translator. Paul's work is valuable for the light it throws on medicine and surgery of the seventh century. He covers eye surgery, trephining, military surgery, obstetrics, dentistry, and numerous other subjects.”  
 
“Paul of Aegina (AD 625-690) was also a chronicler of the writing of Rufus (of Ephesus, AD98-117, “certainly the greatest medical link between Hippocrates and Galen”). Paul was the last of the Greek Physicians who preserved the writings that had been compiled over the millennium. The description of the plague by Rufus, retold by Paul, recounts the environment in which it flourished, the symptoms and physical signs of the afflicted and the symptomatic treatment.” (Talbott, A Biographical History of Medicine, 1970, pg 11) 
Thornton’s Medical Books, Libraries and Collectors, 2nd ed, 1966, states: “The last of the Greek compilators, Paul of Aegina (Paulus Aegineta)(625-690), summarized all that was previously known on medicine, but his surgery was more original.” (pg 14) 
 
Brown’s Old Masterpieces in Surgery, 1928, pg 17-21, gives: 
 
“Paulus begins the surgery with the head, goes on to the eyes and gradually travels downward, ending with fracture and ulcer of the foot. He thus covers the entire body. One finds that he operated upon man conditions—As a rhinologist he removed polypi, as an ophthalmologist he removed pterygium and in the mouth he not only extracted teeth but also performed tonsillotomy. In general surgery he operated upon hernia, opened empyema with the actual cautery, and in urology he removed stones by lithotomy. As a ware surgeon he evidently had considerable experience in removal of foreign bodies. In this manipulation he calls attention to the technique that Pare emphasized nine centuries later in the Brissot case: that in removing a foreign body the patient must be placed in the position in which he was when the foreign body entered. He devotes also considerable attention to fractures and dislocations. His direction for reduction and immobilization are quite clear. He makes use of traction by machines for reduction and splints for immobilization.” 
 
Regarding the translator, in relation to Vesalius, Nuland gives the following honest account about Andernach: 
 
“His [Vesalius’] self-taught expertise did not go unappreciated. When one of his teachers, Guinter of Andernach, prepared to compile from Galen a small unillustrated book of anatomy, he asked his obviously gifted student for help. In the publication that came out of the ensuing labors, Guinter correctly described his assistant as “a youth of great promise with a remarkable knowledge of medicine and of Greek and Latin, and great dexterity in dissection.” Vesalius, never one to praise the undeserving or to understate his own contributions, was less respectful to his mentor, writing some years later: ‘I reverence him on many counts, and in my published writings I have honored him as my teacher; but I wish there may be inflicted on my body, one for one, as many strokes as I have ever seen him attempt to make incisions in the bodies of men or bests, except at the dinner table.’”