[De Morbis acutis & chronicis Libri VIII]. Caelii Aureliani Siccensis, medici vetusti secta methodici, de Morbis Acutis & Chronicis Libri VIII. Soli ex omnium Methodicorum Scriptis superstites Jo. Conradus Amman, M.D., recensuit, emaculavit, notulsaque adjecit. Accedunt seorsim Theod. Janss. ab. Almeloveen...

Amsterdam: Ex officina Wetsteniana, 1709. Hardcover. Very Good. Small 4to (200 x 155mm). [32, index], 728pp. Signatures: 1star-4star(4), A-Z(4), Aa-Zz(4), Aaa-Zzz(4), Aaaa-Yyyy(4). Full-page engraved half-title of scene of busy hospital room, with patients reclining in beds in background, and ailing patient treated by group of physicians with herbs and bottled medicines. Title printed in red and black. Preface by Swiss editor and physician Johann Conrad Amman (1669-1724). Period half vellum, blind stamped with arabesque to covers, backed in calf of gilt-stamped spine with red morocco lettering label: AURELIANI * DE MORBIS; (binding slightly rubbed with few spots, internally clean and complete).

Though Caelius Aurelius was a Latin translator of ancient Greek medical manuscripts, philologists often discuss his work as if he was the original author. He was born in Sicca, Numidia (now in Algeria) with a dubious start, but almost certainly flourished as a Greco-Roman physician in the mid-fifth century. Caelius Aurelius is known by his Latin medical writings, especially this translation of a now lost Greek “medical textbook” on diseases written by Soran of Ephesos and titled, De Morbis Acutis & Chronicis or “On Acute and Chronic Diseases.” Both authors are considered to be the primary representatives of the secta methodici or “Methodist school,” a Greek school of medicine, whose texts gave access to and crucially reconstructed the rich medical teachings of the ancient world. The work De Morbis Acutis & Chronicis consists of two parts. The first part deals with fourteen acute diseases in three books and the second consists of five books and covers forty-four chronic diseases. This is widely regarded as the best edition of the Caelius Aurelius’s work, edited by Johann Conrad Amman and published in Amsterdam by Jacob de Wetstein in 1709; it was reprinted in 1722, 1755, and 1759. This edition contains valuable annotations and a “Lexicon Caelianum” by the Dutch physician Theodorus Janssonius van Almeloveen (1657-1712). Aldus first published it in 1547 in a collection titled, Medici Antiqui Omnes. This text is one of the most valuable in the field of pathology, not only for describing a grant range of diseases (including sections on psychiatry and neurology) and their treatments (famously prescribing sun-baths for “chronic affections”) but that it also contains the foundation of contemporary Latin medical terminology, rooted in the Greek language. Rare first edition, far more common is the Amsterdam edition of 1722.