De medicina Aegyptiorum, libri quatuor

Venice: Apud Franciscum de Franciscis Senensem, 1591. First edition, title page corrected at lines 6-8 (as per Mortimer). With 2 full-page woodcuts, and others in text; title page vignette, ornamental initials throughout. [12], 150, [25] leaves. 1 vols. 4to in 8s (245 x 174mm.). Old limp vellum, later cloth label. Usual light soiling. Some dampstaining to bottom corner margin in gatherings L-R. Early marginal notes on three leaves (47v, 48v, 103r). Ownership signatures of Giuseppi Nedili and Jeome Coli at foot of title page. Bookplate of Otto Orren Fisher. First edition, title page corrected at lines 6-8 (as per Mortimer). With 2 full-page woodcuts, and others in text; title page vignette, ornamental initials throughout. [12], 150, [25] leaves. 1 vols. 4to in 8s (245 x 174mm.). The “first important work on the history of Egyptian medicine. Alpini became professor of botany at Padua after having spent three years (1581-3) in Egypt” (Garrison-Morton). He was the physician top the Venetian consul at Cairo. Alpini’s next book, De plantis Aegypti (1592), contains the first discussion and illustration of coffee, in European scientific literature (early sources often cite in error the present work as the first mention of coffee). Alpini does discuss the use and effects of cannabis (f. 121). Garrsison-Morton 6468; Biblotheca Osleriana 1796; Durling 178; Garrison-Morton 6468; Hunt 161; Mortimer/Harvard Italian 16; Norman 39; Adams A-802; Wellcome 232; Simon, Bibl. Bacchia II, 42; Mueller 5; STC/Italian 20