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Rueff, Jacob (1500-1558) De Conceptu et Generatione Hominis: De Matrice et Eius Partibus.
Frankfurt: Sigismund Feyerabend, 1580.
Quarto, first edition with illustrations by Jost Amman, including a detailed birthing scene on the title, woodcut arms of the dedicatee, and seventy-three text woodcuts, several full-paged; bound in contemporary limp parchment (later pastedown and ffep to front), title toned, marginal corner tear with slight loss on folio 47, owner's signature to title, and a few other manuscript notes, 8 x 6 1/4 in.
According to Garrison and Morton, the 1580 edition of Rueff's practical obstetrical work, "contains the first true anatomical pictures in an obstetrics book." Rueff, as Zurich's official doctor, ordered that his book be given to all local practitioners attending women in labor, and asked that appropriate sections be read aloud in the birthing room as the delivery progressed. The manual was also geared to pregnant women themselves, a trend in pregnancy and childbirth literature that has served women for many centuries and is still in popular use today.
