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First edition. Paris: Chez Méquignon-Marvis, 1813. Trigesimosecundo (32mo) in 8s (3 3/8" x 2 3/8", 98mm x 60mm). [Full collation available.] Bound in contemporary straight-grained red morocco. On the covers, a gilt grapevine roll within a gilt fillet border. On the spine, five panels. Gilt heads in profile (Hippocrates?) in the first, third, fourth and fifth panels. Title gilt to the second panel. At the tail, the binder's signature gilt: "REL.P.MESLANT" Gilt fillet to the edges of the boards, and dashed gilt inside dentelle. Marbled end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt. Lower fore-corners rebuilt, and upper fore-corners bumped. Mild rubbing generally. Gilt red sheep ex-libris of Henri Burton to the recto of the first free end-paper. Hippocrates of Cos (ca. 460-370 BC) was a physician, commonly known as the "father of medicine," whose writings and those of his followers -- the Corpus Hippocraticum -- are the basis of western medical knowledge and theory. His Oath is the best-known of his writing, but the Hippocratic corpus had tremendous influence on the practice of medicine into the modern era. Hippocrates' Aphorisms, like all aphorisms, were especially popular because they were brief and memorable. The first and most famous begins "vita brevis, ars longa," (life is short, art long-lived) which Pariset translates "la vie est court, l'art est long" (pp. 2-3). This does not especially strike one as particularly medical, until one continues: "occasio præceps, experientia fallax, judicium difficile. Oportet autem non modò se ipsum exhibere quæ oportet facientem, sed etiam ægrum, et præsentes, et externa" (opportunity is fleeting, experience misleading, judgment difficult. One must not oneself do just what must be done, but also the ill person, and those nearby and surrounding). It is, in fact, quite a strikingly modern approach to medicine: a collaborative effort between doctor, patient, family and community. The binder, P. Meslant, comes from a distinguished family of Parisian binders, associated in particular with the Empress Josephine, Louis-Philippe I and other members of the Orleans family. He seems to have had a special line in small books, exquisite in their restrained richness. From Sotheby's New York's 11 June 2013 (lot 50) sale including the library of Henri Burton, "a Lyon native who amassed a collection with great taste and discretion over four decades.". Seller Inventory # 6JLR0170
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