De Unicornu Observationes Novae. Secunda editione auctiores & emendatiores editae à filio Casparo Bartholino. by Bartholin, Thomas - 1678

12mo (14,5 x 9 cm). [16], 381, [15] pp. With etched frontispiece by Romeyn de Hooghe, one folding plates and 22 engraved illustrations in the text. Contemporary vellum. With the armorial engraved bookplate of N.F. de Douay du Prehedrez. Spine slightly dirty, otherwise in very good condition.

Second, the first illustrated edition, edited by Thomas's son Caspar, of Bartholin's influential treatise demystifying the unicorn.

In his treatise Bartholin, a Danish physician, shows that the many 'horns' displayed in cabinets of curiosities were in fact tusks of the narwhal. And he believed that the horse-like unicorns, allegedly sighted in Asia and Africa, too had their counterpart in the natural world.

Interestingly, he attributes many medicinal qualities to them and used the tusks personally to remedy a wide variety of ailments and developed what can be described as an early form of aspirin.

Bartholin's interpretation received a favourable reception, and most scientists readily accepted it. However, later research by Cornelis Stalpart van der Wiel among others falsified Bartholin's medical claims.

Krivatsy 822; Verkruijsse, Romeyn de Hooghe 1678.01; cf. Roling, 'Der Wal als Schauobjekt: Thomas Bartholin (1616–1680), die dänische Nation und das Ende der Einhörner', in: Zoology in Early Modern Culture (2014), pp. 172–196.