ARTICELLA, HIPPOKRATES a.o.

The Articella is a collection of medical works whose roots can be traced back to the School of Salerno, the earliest centre of organized medical instruction in medieval Europe up to the early twelfth century. By that time a core of five theoretical, medical texts in Latin translation had coalesced, which, with various accretions, went on to play a significant role in European medical eduction well into the sixteenth century. The first printed edition, which appeared about 1476 in Padua, contained the seven traditional treatises (Hunain ibn Ishaq, Johannitii Isagoge; Hippocrates, Aphorisms; Hippocrates, Prognostic; Theophilus Protopatharius, On Urines; Philaretus, On Pulses; Galenus Medical Art; Hippocratic Regimen in Acute Diseases. The second edition, dated 1483, contains additional works, including the first printing of the Hippocratic Oath in the Latin translation of Pier Paolo Vergerio (1370–1444). From this on the document became popular, appearing in four subsequent incunable editions of the Articella, as well as in early sixteenth century editions. The text of the Oath (“Iusiurandum”) is to be found on fol. XVII in the present 1525 edition. The remarkable full-page woodcut of the bloodletting man first appeared in the 1507 edition. The Oath was referred to by Soranus and others in the first century A.D. and it maintained a secure place in the Hippocratic corpus through the Middle Ages. It was translated into Arabic by Hunayn, playing a fundamental role in Islamic deontology, and appeared several times in Latin translations from the twelfth century onwards. It was, however, the inclusion of the Oath in the Articella that secured for it a central place in the European medical consciousness, a role that, once achived, it has never relinquished.

Collation: 368 leaves. Foliation irregular. Double columns. Sign.: a-z 8, a-c 8, A-U 8. Title printed in red and black within architectural woodcut border. Printer’s device on last leaf. Fullpage woodcut of blood-letting man on U4 recto. Early hand written notes especially on first and last few leaves.

Binding: Rebound around 1830 in half calf with the gilt stamp of Sv. Läkare Sällskapet on the front cover.

References: First edition (Venice, 1483): Grolier, One Hundred Books Famous in Medicine, No. 1 C; Durling, NLM, 331; Choulant p. 402; Stillwell 280; Sarton, An Appreciation of Ancient and Medieval Science during the Renaissance (1955), p 45; Waller 21 (Incunabula: Venice, 1500). Waller 21 (Incunabula: Venice, 1500).