Sommaire Défense aux demandes des Docteurs, et Faculté de Médecine de Paris. Paris, 1579. RELIE AVEC (à la suite): 2). (du même). Premier Traicté de l'Homme et son Essentielle Anatomie auec les Elémens, et ce qui est en eux: De ses Maladies, Médecine, et absoluts remèdes és Tainctures d'Or, Corail, et Antimoine: et Magistère des perles: et de leur extraction. A Paris, pour Abel l'Angelier Libraire, 1580. 3). (du même). Traicté de la cause de la briefve vie de plusieurs Princes et Grands, et le moyen d'y pourvoir: Faict en faveur de Monseigneur de Rohan, etc. A Rennes, par Michel Logeroys, 1591. 4). (du même). Conformité de l'ancienne et moderne médecine d'Hippocrate à Paracelse: divisée en huict Pauses ou Journées. Et à la fin, Hippocratis et Paracelsi sententiarum unitas. Dédiée au Roy. A Rennes, par Michel Logeroys, 1592.

4 works in 1 volume, 8vo. 1). 31 unnumbered leaves (1 blank leaf). 2). 62 numbered leaves (i.e. 52). 8 leaves. 3). 8 leaves. 27 numbered leaves. (1 blank leaf). 4). 24 leaves. 112 numbered leaves. Full vellum, flat spine, inked author's name and date ("1579") on back (contemprary binding). Precious collection of four rare works by Roch Le Baillif de la Rivière (1540-1605), Breton physician and alchemist of mythical fame. One of the first representatives of the Paracelesian doctrine in France, he was sued by the Faculty of Medicine of Paris. The four books gathered here provide an interesting panorama of his work, following his 1578 trial. They were published between Paris and Rennes, a city where he returned after his banishment from Paris, and where he was acquainted with Breton personalities such as Noël du Fail, Bertrand d'Argentré or some of the members of the Parliament of Brittany. 1). First Edition. Defence presented by Roch Le Baillif as a response to the accusations made against him by the Faculty of Medicine of Paris. It was written shortly after he was ordered to leave Paris. "Forbidden to practice medicine in Paris, he wrote this work to show publicly that gout, dropsy, epilepsy, pthisis (tuberculosis), gravelle (urinary calculus), and quartan fever are curable. The rest of the work is a defense of Paracelsus and his view that medicine cannot be practiced without a knowledge of alchemy, a fact known not only to Dioscorides, Rhazes, Avicenna, and Arnald of Villanova but also to men of his own time such as Fernel, Wecker, Adam of Bodenstein, and 'the learned Andernach, the premier physician of our time who extracts his excellent remedies this way'…" (Debus). Small tear in the blank part of the title page, without affecting the text. 2). First Edition. Roch Le Baillif's first publication following his trial and bannishment from Paris, it is based on the medical principles of Paracelsus. "On ne saurait voir dans le 'Premier Traicté de l'Homme' une nouvelle réplique à la Faculté, mais la simple continuation, envers et contre tous, du 'labeur demosteric' de Le Baillif (…). Les quatre recettes par quoi se clôt l'ouvrage, quatre des plus caractéristiques de la pharmacopée paracelsienne (teintures d'or, de corail, d'antimoine, magistère des perles), ainsi que les quatorze pqges d'index qui achèvent le volume, traduisent la volonté de produire un manuel, un traité pratique de médecine destiné à être utilisé" (Kahn). 3). First Edition, printed in Rennes. A treatise on paracelsic medicine, published under the patronage of the young Calvinist duke Henri II of Rohan (1578-1638), twelve years old at the time. 4). First Edition, printed in Rennes, of this book in which Roch Le Baillif compares Hippocrates' Aphorisms to the doctrine of Paracelsus. Several ancient handwritten ex-libris, those of the book's first owner in the late 16th century and of later owners, the last one a medical doctor named Guillaume, from the city of Dole (Jura). 1). Cf. Debus, "The French Paracelsians" (1991), p.40. 2). Cf. Kahn, "la Faculté de Médecine de Paris en échec face au Paracelsisme: enjeux et dénouement réels du procès de Roch Le Baillif" in: "Paracelsus und seine internationale Rezeption in der frühen Neuzeit" (1998), p.194.