De universa mulierum medicina [...]. Pars prima Theorica [- Pars secunda, sive Praxis].

2 parts in 1 vol., folio: [12]-135-[21], [8]-333-[23] pp. (tear underlaid at title 2nd part; some light dampstaining or marg. spotting).

Contemp. overl. vellum, flat spine titled in ink (strengthened at head & tail). Good copy.

Partly first edition of this important gynaecological encyclopedia by the Jewish refugee doctor from Portugal, Rodrigo de Castro (1546-1627). The first part is a 1604 reissue of the 1603 first ed. 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. Part 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. 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. De Castro also wrote "Medicus Politicus" (1614), one of the first works on medical ethics. Part 2 has a separate title page and pagination. Engr. arm. vign. on both titles.
Ref. VD17 14:673030A (Pt 1) & 12:186637S (Pt 2). - Wellcome I:1361. - Krivatsy 2285. - STC 1601-1700 (German) C-378. - Roth, C. - The Jewish contribution to civilisation (London, 1938), p. 202. - Not in Garrison-Morton.
Prov. Ms. monogram "KLAVERS" on title. - Ownership "J. Eelkens" on title erased.