Trattado unico da constituiçam pestilencial de Pernambuco, offerecido a ElRey N.S. por ser servido ordenar por seu Governador aos Medicos da America, que assistem aonde ha este contagio, que o compusessem para se conferirem pelos Coripheos da Medicina aos dictames com que he trattada esta pestilencial febre. de ROSA, João Ferreira da [title-page: Joam Ferreyra da Rosa]

Lisbon, Na Officina de Miguel Manescal, Impressor do Principe Nosso Senhor, 1694.. FIRST EDITION. 4°, contemporary limp vellum (rather worn, upper half of spine defective), remains of ties. Typographical headpieces. Woodcut initials. Woodcut tailpieces. Some waterstaining. Honest, complete, and unsophisticated. In very good condition. Occasional contemporary ink manuscript annotations in margins as well as on the front free endleaf verso and rear free endleaf recto. (18 ll.), 224 pp. The two leaves of the index, bound here before the main text, are sometimes found bound at the end of the volume. *** FIRST EDITION of the FIRST SCIENTIFIC BOOK TO DESCRIBE YELLOW FEVER, BY THE FIRST EUROPEAN PHYSICIAN TO TREAT THE DISEASE, WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE FIRST AUTOPSY OF A YELLOW FEVER VICTIM. The author of this early scientific Brasiliana received his medical training at Coimbra and practiced for many years in Recife. It was once thought that he possibly could have been a native of that Brazilian city, where he had the opportunity to see the first epidemics of the malady, then referred to as "o mal da bicha". It is now known that he was born in Gafete, Beira Beixa, Portugal. The book is arranged as a series of questions: What are the signs of this disease? Is it better to bleed the patient from the arm or the foot? Should one apply blisters? How should the parotid glands look? An early owner of our copy made marginal notations of certain recipes and added occasional cross-references. A substantial early note on the front flyleaf cites an article in the Gazeta of 1716 that mentioned Vigier's Thesouro Apollineo, calling it a very useful book and noting where it can be purchased.Borba de Moraes (1983) II, 747-8 comments: "The book is not only of the greatest rarity but also of great scientific importance.… Ferreira da Rosa submits here the first known accurate and clear observation on yellow fever .... This is obviously a precious book not only concerning the history of Brazilian medicine, so destitute in medical books of the colonial period, but also for the history of medicine in general.… Very few copies are recorded of this extremely rare book."In the first edition of his Bibliographia Brasiliana, Borba de Moraes stated that he was able to locate only three copies, in the Biblioteca Nacional of Portugal, the Biblioteca Nacional of Brazil, and the Oliveira Lima Library of the Catholic University of America, in Washington. According to Porbase, there are three copies in the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal; the entry in Porbase cites only 16 preliminary leaves. Upon inspecting the three copies, we found that one was badly wormed (affecting the text) and missing the two leaves of the index. The other two copies are complete and in reasonable condition. The copy at the Biblioteca Nacional of Brazil is reportedly in poor condition. The Oliveira Lima Library copy is missing two preliminary leaves. There are also copies in the British Library, the National Library of Medicine, the New York Academy of Medicine, the library of the Faculdade de Medicina de Lisboa, and that of the Escola Medico-Cirurgica do Porto (apparently incomplete). The John Carter Brown Library recently acquired a rather shabby, unappealing copy missing two preliminary leaves. The only complete copy besides the present one we have seen on the market since 1969, when we began to track such things, was sold in Paris, 24 June 1976 in the so-called "Ferreira das Neves" sale (albeit washed and rebound); it is now in the Bosch collection. We have also seen two incomplete copies in commerce, the one now in JCB that lacks two leaves, and another, in much better condition overall but missing one preliminary leaf, that was sold by us to a Spanish collector in 1974.*** Garrison, History of Medicine, fourth edition, p. 272. Borba de Moraes (1983) II, 747-8 (citing only 14 preliminary leaves, with the two index leaves following the text); see also Borba de Moraes (1958) II, 216-7. Innocêncio III, 372-3 (without collation; obviously cited without ever having seen the book); X, 252 (correcting the incorrect transcription of the title given in volume III after having been able to see only a defective copy belonging to Rodrigues de Gusmão, which lacked the licenses, dedication, prologue, index and "mais quatro peças"). Sacramento Blake III, 428-9 (saying that Ferreira da Rosa was born in Pernambuco; giving incomplete collation). Arouca R555. Barbosa Machado II, 658. Pinto de Matos (1970) pp. 290-1. Sabin 73167 (transcribing the title from Innocêncio, and mentioning only the copy in the British Library [then the British Museum]). Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, XLVIII (1972), 1343-5. Dictionnaire des Sciences Médicales XV (Paris 1816), 334, 371. Lima Leitão, Discurso pronunciado … da Sociedade das Medicas de Lisboa no dia 12 de mayo de 1839; Registo medico p. 9: "Os exemplares d'esta edição são tão raros, que só tenho noticia de um, que pertence á Biblioteca Publica d'esta Côrte." Bosch 153. "Ferreira das Neves" (i.e., Jacques Renout) sale 239. Goldsmith, Short Title Catalogue of Spanish and Portuguese Books 1601-1700 in the Library of the British Museum F154. Lisbon, Faculdade de Medicina, Catálogo da colecção portuguesa I, 260-1. Pires de Lima, Catalogo da Bibliotheca da Escola Medico-Cirurgica do Porto 3552 (inexplicably stating "229 + [29] pp."; our best guess is that there are really 224 pp. + 14 unnumbered ll.). Rarest Books in the Oliveira Lima collection 112 (with only 17 preliminary leaves). Monteverde 2358 (appears to have been the second most expensive book in the sale). John Carter Brown Library, Rare Americana. A Selection of One Hundred and One Books, Maps and Prints Not in the John Carter Brown Library 61. Not in JCB, Portuguese and Brazilian Books (but Josiah cites an incomplete copy in poor condition at JCB, wrongly catalogued as an 8º). Not in Rodrigues. Not in Mindlin Highlights. Not in Brasiliana Itau. Of the twenty or so most important Portuguese auction sales since that of Sir Gubián in 1867, we were able to locate this work only in the Monteverde catalogue; not located in Sir Gubián, Nepomuceno, Moreira Cabral, Fernandes Thomaz, Azevedo-Samodães, Ameal, Ávila-Pérez, etc. See also Ferreira de Mira, História da medicina portuguesa, pp. 178, 258; and Santos Filho, História geral da medicina brasileira pp. 41, 86, 171. Porbase locates three copies, all in the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal (but two of which lack the final 4 unnumbered pp.). Jisc repeats only the British Library copy. Not located in Hollis or Orbis. Not located in NUC.