Maiolo, Epiphyllides, bound with De gradibus medicinarum, Venice, Aldo, 1497, near contemporary German pigskin

Maiolo, Lorenzo. Epiphyllides .i. Botryunculi & Racemuli in dialecticis. Epiphyllides in dialecticis. Add: De conversione propositionum secundum peripateticos. Averroes: Quaestio in librum Analyticorum priorum Aristotelis (Tr: Helias Cretensis Hebraeus). (Venice: Aldo Manuzio, July 1497)

[Bound with:] Maiolo, Lorenzo. De gradibus medicinarum. (Venice: [Aldo Manuzio, before 13 September] 1497)

First edition, a second copy of Maiolo's philosophical works relating to commentaries on Aristotle in part discussing the Arab Peripatetics, Ibn Rushd, al-Fārābī, and Ibn Sīnā.

First edition of De gradibus medicinarum, one of the earliest printed pharmacological works on dosology, including an account of Al-Kindi's complex attempts to apply mathematics to pharmacology by quantifying the strength of drugs.

Both works are very rare in the market: in addition to the present copies, Rare Book Hub records only the Spencer-Rylands copy of De gradibus and only the Spencer-Rylands and one other copy of Epiphyllides.

2 works in one volume, Super-Chancery 4to (213 x 156 mm). Epiphyllides: Roman types, 33 lines plus headline. collation: A⁴ b-f⁸ g^{10 2}a-i⁸ A-D⁸: 158 leaves (g10 blank; A-D bound g10). 3- to 8-line initial spaces with guide-letters. De gradibus: Roman and Greek types, 33 lines plus headline. collation: A-G⁸: 56 leaves (G8 blank). Diagrams, 3-, 4-, and 5-line initial spaces with guide-letters. nb: This copy (appropriately?) does not include the final two-leaf quire I containing errata for both Epiphyllides and De gradibus, of which the BMC states, "The errata refer to both this tract [De gradibus] and the Epiphyllides and are shown by the type, which contains admixtures from 80 Ital., to be considerably later than the rest of the book." (Dampstaining to lower fore-edge corners of final three quires.)

binding: Near-contemporary German pigskin over beveled beech boards (227 x 173 mm), covers paneled in blind with a floral roll within multiple blind fillets, central panel decorated with floral tools, brass corners (one lost), remnants of two brass clasps, spine in four compartments with traces of early ink lettering, plain endpapers, yellow edges, three (of four), vellum book-tabs at fore-edge. (Soiled, spine extensively restored, rear cover very worn with blind decoration almost disappeared.)

provenance: Galerie Gerda Bassenge, Auktion 87, Berlin, 26-28 April 2006, lot 826; purchased by — unidentified owner (€30,000). acquisition: Purchased from Bibliopathos Libreria Antiquaria, Verona, 2017. references: Epiphyllides: UCLA 13; Aldo Manuzio tipografo 14; BMC V 557 (IA 24443); Goff M83; GW M20060; ISTC im00083000; Renouard 14.8-10; De gradibus: UCLA 14; Aldo Manuzio tipografo 15; BMC V 557 (IA 24454); Goff M84; GW M20071; ISTC im00084000; Renouard 14/11