BARRIOS JUAN DE Verdadera Medicína Cirugía y Astrología 160

Sale 2162 - Lot 234

Price Realized: $ 1,440

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000

IMPORTANT EARLY MEXICAN MEDICAL IMPRINT BARRIOS, JUAN DE. Verdadera Medicína, Cirugía, y Astrología. 186; [1], 80; [1], 37 [i. e., 38]; 59-68 leaves; lacks the ten preliminary leaves (including portrait and title) and last two leaves. Folio, early 19th-century 1/4 sheep, heavily worn, spine missing portions from top and bottom, joints cracked; contents browned and dampstained, sometimes quite heavily, occasional tears and worming with varying text loss, several leaves partly detached, strong odor of camphor. 18th-century manuscript title and table of contents bound in. Mexico: Fernando Balli, 1607

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scarce first edition of the most comprehensive medical treatise printed in mexico until then, integrating Galenic and Hippocratic doctrine with indigenous curative knowledge. The author (1563-?) was a Castillian physician who practiced in Mexico. The book is composed in dialogue form and divided into 4 parts. The first deals with anatomy; surgery and wound treatment; the Hippocratic theory of complexions; dietetics; astrology, which Barrios repudiated; and diseases and conditions affecting the various parts of the body. The second is concerned with fevers and venereal and other chronic diseases, and includes a discussion of the water supply of the city of Mexico. The third is devoted primarily to obstetrics, gynecology, and pediatrics, and concludes with a section on cosmetology entitled De Afeytes, the first beauty guide for women to appear in the New World. The fourth part, De todas las yervas, describing native botanical remedies for a variety of illnesses and complaints, is the first publication of material drawn from the extensive manuscripts on the natural history of mexico by francisco hernández, physician to King Philip II and chief medical officer of the Indies (see lot 283). Somolinos d'Ardois, "Los Impresos Médicos Mexicanos (1553-1618)," in Comas et al., El Mestizaje Cultural y la Medicina Novohispana del Siglo XVI (Valencia, 1995), pages 229-50; García Icazbalceta, pages 238-41; Krivatsy 722 (also lacking preliminaries); Medina (Mexico) 232; Palau 24830; Porrua, Diccionario . . . de Mexico, pages 183 and 725-26; Wellcome Americana M.9.