Galenus, [Opera], Venice, Aldus, 1525, 5 volumes, old vellum

Property from the Loverdos Collectoin

Claudius Galenus

[Opera omnia] Γαληνου Α' (-Ε'). Venice: Aldus (in the house of Aldus and Andrea Torresano, April) 1525

5 volumes, folio (328 x 227mm.), woodcut Aldine device on title-pages and at end of each volume, text in Greek, with blank leaves f4 and &6 in vol.1, *3 in vol.2, *3 in vol.3, PPp8 in vol.4, and Yy10 in vol.5, annotations in various hands, old vellum, blue edges, a few deckle edges, occasional staining, worming in gutter of vols 2-3 (sometimes affecting text), vol.4 with damage to lower corner of first few quires and with hole in the text of the last few quires, a few small holes in text of vol.5, bindings refurbished with new endpapers

EDITIO PRINCEPS of the surviving works of Galen (129-c. 200), one of the most significant medical writers of antiquity. Despite its faults, this is still a relatively tall and crisp copy showing extensive use by numerous readers.

This copy contains some pressed flowers and plants, mostly in volume 5; some of them are accompanied by a manuscript label stating the species and the date, such as Lagoecia cuminoides (wild cumin), picked in Athens in May 1839. Most of these date from 1838 and 1839.

LITERATURE

Cataldi Palau 95; PMM 33; UCLA 231-233, 235-236