De universa muliebrium morborum medicina [...]. Altera editio auctior et emendatior [- [...] Pars secunda, sive Praxis [...]].

2 parts in one vol., 4to: [24]-226-[42], [4]-541-[43] pp.; 1 tabl. (spotting, sm. hole in running title in b4 of 1st part, marg. wormtracks and tiny wormholes, wormtracks in text of 2nd part, tear in p. 425 of 2nd part without loss, marg. stains to pp. 108-9 1st part and p. 29 2nd part).

Contemp. overl. vellum with visible sewing, flat spine (sl. soiled, left part of lower board repaired).

Important gynaecological encyclopedia (1st 1603) by the Jewish refugee doctor from Portugal, R. de Castro (1546-1627). Part 1 ("De natura mulierum") deals with the anatomy of the uterus and breasts; semen and menses; coitus, conception and pregnancy; and labour and breastfeeding. Pt. 2 ("De morbis mulierum") is on women’s diseases, including those that were then considered as peculiar to widows and virgins, those related to pregnancy and pregnant women, and those that women in childbirth and wet-nurses may suffer from. Fold. table with a list of diseases and the chapters in which they are explained. This work is "generally regarded as having laid the foundations of gynaecology as we know it to-day" (Roth). De Castro, coming from a family of physicians, studied medicine in Salamanca and left Portugal in the 1580s on religious grounds. After staying in Antwerp and Amsterdam, he settled in Hamburg in 1594. There he became a successful doctor and author and had many distinguished patients, a.o. the king of Denmark. Woodcut printer's mark on titles.
Ref. VD17 23:290214P (Pt. 1) & 23:290216D (Pt. 2). - Wellcome I:1362. - Krivatsy 2286. - Roth, C. - The Jewish contribution to civilisation (London, 1938), p. 202. - Not in Bibl. Walleriana, Garrison & Morton, STC (other ed.).
Prov. Ms. entry on title.