Casp. Hofmanni Variarum Lectionum Lib. VI: In quibus loca multa Dioscoridis, Athenaei, Plinii, Hippocratis, Aristotelis, Galeni, aliorum, quâ illustrantur quâ explicantur. Cum indice locupletissimo.

Lipsiae:: Impensis Eliae Rehefeldii & Johan. Grosii., 1619., 1619. Three works bound as one. Small 8vo. 15 cm. [22], 332, [14] pp. Titles with vignettes, the first work with a printer's device at Z7v, the other two works with head & tailpieces. Colophon verso: ?Lipsiae, Laurentius Kober excudebat, Impensis Eliae Rehefeldii & Johannis Grosii. Anno M. DC. XIX.? Printer's device on t.p. and on colophon verso. Original half calf, speckled boards; some worming at boards and effecting final 2 leaves (in blank areas), extremities worn. Provenance: ownership ink stamp of Royal College of Surgeons of England. Bookseller's label: Masson & cie. (1927); rubber stamp: Doctor Mario E. Spada. Very good. RARE. First editions. A 1619 polemic by Caspar Hofmann on Dioscorides, Pliny, Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen. Bound with this are two other polemics by Hofmann. BOUND WITH: HOFMANN, Caspar; Paul Marquard SCHLEGEL (1605-1653). Pathologia Parva, in quâ Methodus Galeni practica, explicatur, quam olim Fr. Frisimelica promiserat. Jenae: Typis Ernest Steinmanni, impensis Joh. Reiffenbergerus, 1640. 8vo. 143, [1] pp. BOUND WITH: HOFMANN, Caspar. Rejectanea Pathologica, Quâ De Morbis Formae et Materiae, a Fernelio, Argenterioq[ue], per somnum visis. Ad Cl. virum, DD. Thomam Reinesium . . . Helmaestadii: Typis heredum Jacobi Lucii, impensis Jeremiae Rixner, 1639. 8vo. [63] pp. / Two of Hofmann's polemics against the modern theories of Jean Fernel and Giovanni Argenterio on the causes of diseases. See: Nancy G. Siraisi, ?Giovanni Argenterio and Sixteenth-Century Medical Innovation: Between Princely Patronage and Academic Controversy,? Osiris, vol. 6, Renaissance Medical Learning: Evolution of a Tradition (1990), pp. 161-180. ?He criticized or revived medical writers of the previous century, such as Fernel and John Argenterius, or Franciscus Frisimelica, and was still intent - as were readers after his death - upon such themes as innate heat and spritis.? - Thorndike, VIII, p. 413 (footnotes 41, 42). / Caspar Hofmann (1572-1648), born in Gotha, his father a blacksmith, took his medical degree at Basel (1605), succeeding as professor of medicine at the University of Altdorf in Nuremberg after Nicolaus Taurellus. - Thorndike, VIII, p. 412. Baas describes him as poor and sickly his whole life and, further, that he was ?rough in his manners and therefore greatly disliked.? Baas also points to his passion for truth. (p. 530). A staunch traditionalist in medicine, he adhered to ancient theories of medicine and anatomy rather than accept advancement, in particular, Harvey's proof of the circulation of the blood. Hofmann was undeterred and fought against Harvey and others. PROVENANCE: Royal College of Surgeons of England - Masson & cie. (1927) - rubber stamp: Doctor Mario E. Spada - Dr. Hernan Demonti. REFERENCES: Krivatsy, NLM, 5922 [Variarum]; 5917 [Pathologia Parva]; 5918 [Rejectanea Pathologica]