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Limited edition of 987 numbered copies Facsimile: brown leather with gold decoration, 36 x 26 cm, commentary volume: cloth, 4to, Facsimile: 340 pp, 386 ills; commentary: 432 pp. 8488526679 8488526687 A very high-quality facsimile of the "Livre des simples médecines" The book of simple medicines) of the Russian National Library, St Petersburg, together with the accompanying scholarly commentary volume. The codex was produced in France in the late 15th century for Count Charles of Angoulême and his wife Louise of Savoy. It is remarkable not merely for the beauty of its illuminations, but also for its content: it presents the accumulated European medieval knowledge of the animal, vegetable and mineral substances used to cure or relieve disease. The codex contains 220 pages of text arranged in five parts: herbs and flowers, trees and their gums and resins, metals and minerals, animal products and other matters, together with by a splendid, 116-page atlas containing 386 figures. The core of the text is a French translation of the compendium attributed to Matthaeus Platearius, with the addition of chapters from works of the following three centuries, a period when the knowledge of medicinal substances increased, based on the translations produced mainly in Toledo. The atlas - which may have been produced by the great artist Robinet Testard - gathers together medieval illustrations of a diagrammatic nature or bearing no resemblance to reality with other realistic illustrations belonging to the Renaissance 'back to nature' movement. Most of them depict medicinal plants and, to a lesser extent, curative animal or mineral products, although some scenes portray people gathering them. The St Petersburg codex is interestingly annotated, by two physicians who handled the codex in the 16th century. They were both of a clearly Renaissance outlook and had editions in Greek and direct Latin translations of books on medicine from classical antiquity. They consequently deemed the original terms of the codex to be "barbaric" and added others in Greek and Latin, sometimes together with comments. The commentary volume has the following principal contents (which are presented in Spanish as well as in English): From the Editor to the Reader = Del Editor al Lector; Le Livre Des Simple Medecines, Codex of the National Library of Russia = El Códice Le Livre des Simples Medecines, de la Biblioteca Nacional de Rusia, by José María López Piñero; Codicological Study = Estudio Codicologico, by Natacha Elaguina; The Illustrations in the Livre des Simples Médecines of the National Library of Russia = Las Ilustraciones del Livre des Simples Médecines de la Biblioteca Nacional de Rusia, by Carlos Miranda García; Le Livre des Simples Medecines, Traducción Anotada, by María Luz López Tetrada; Bibliography = Bibliografía. Facsimile Copy No. 63. Fine in the publisher's matching solander box (41 x 32 cm), which is also Fine. And with the separate commentary volume, Fine in Near Fine dustwrapper. Seller Inventory # ABE-44817
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Bibliographic Details
Title: Libro de los Medicamentos Simples [with] ...
Publisher: M. Moleiro Editor, Barcelona, first edition, 2001
Publication Date: 2001
Binding: Hardcover
Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
Edition: 1st Edition
