Pharmaca simplicia, Orthone Brunfelsio interprete.Including: De ratione victus Gukielmo Copo Basiliensi interprete.(Colophon: Strasbourg, Georg Ulricher, September 1531). With a finely executed woodcut on the title-page repeated on the verso of the otherwise blank last leaf.With:(2) VALLA, Giorgio. De simplicium natura liber unus.Strasbourg, Heinrich Sybold, (colophon: August 1528). With the title in a woodcut architectural frame.(3) ODO OF MEUNG (misattributed to Aemilius MACER). De herbarum virtutibus, cum Joannis Atrociani co[m]mentariis, ...Including: STRABO, Walafrid. Hortulus vernantissimus.Freiburg im Breisgau, (colophon: Johann Faber, 1530). (4) MARBOD OF ANJOU (with notes and additions by Georg PICTORIUS). De lapidibus pretiosis encheridion, cum scholiis Pictorii Villingensis. Eiusdem Pictorii De lapide molari carmen.[Freiburg im Breisgau], [Johan Faber], 1531. With a woodcut initial with pictorial decoration. Set in an Aldine-style italic.4 editions containing 6 works, in 1 volume. 8vo (16.5 x 11 cm

[12], 86, [1 blank], [1]; [104]; [4], 108; 55, [1] ll.Four editions printed and published in Freiburg and nearby Strasbourg from 1528 to 1531, containing six works of medical and pharmacological interest, all in the original Latin: the first edition of two Byzantine pharmacological works; the first edition of a Renaissance pharmacological work; an 11th-century verse description of nearly a hundred herbal medicines, here in the second edition to include the additions and commentaries of 1527; and the third and best edition of the first lapidary, written around 1100, discussing precious stones, especially the magical and therapeutic properties of gems.Ad 1. First edition of two pharmacological works by the Byzantine physician Paulus of Aegina (ca. 625-ca. 690). The first, Pharmaca simplicia, prepared for publication by the great German pioneer of scientific botany Otto Brunfels (1488?-1534), provides brief accounts of the properties and uses of about 750 pharmacological simples, the basic ingredients for preparing medicines, listed mostly in alphabetical order. The second, De ratione victus, prepared by Wilhelm Kopp (ca. 1461-1532) from Basel, who moved to Paris in 1512 and became personal physician to King Louis XII, describes about 100 medicines, including mushrooms.Ad 2. First edition of a posthumous pharmacological encyclopaedia by the humanist professor Giorgio Valla (1447-1500) at Venice. It contains brief instructions on the use of hundreds of herbal and other medicines, arranged alphabetically.Ad 3. A didactic poem in Latin hexameters explaining the therapeutic value of (originally) 77 kinds of herbs, now usually attributed to the French medieval physician, Odo of Meung in the last quarter of the 11th century, but formerly to Aemilius Macer (70-16 BCE) and therefore sometimes called the Macer Floridus. It was a major influence on the Salerno Regimen sanitatis and through it on the Nicolai Antidotarium, making it a central work in the evolution of European medicine. Including the shorter and more botanical and horticultural poem by Walafrid Strabo (ca. 808-849), both with important new commentaries and additions by Johannes Atrocianus (ca. 1495?-ca. 1543?), giving nearly a hundred kinds of medicinal herbs. Ad 4. Third and best edition of the first lapidary, written in verse around 1100 by Marbod of Anjou, Bishop of Rennes. It gives a detailed account of a wide variety of precious stones, especially the magical powers and therapeutic properties of gems. It is carefully edited and annotated by Georg Pictorius, who also added a few verses of his own. "There is a new spirit in his [Marbode's] work, not seen in earlier lapidaries, which emphasizes that the knowledge of stones is useful and a means of power for men. Marbode’s lapidary then becomes the model for numerous subsequent treatises" (Schuh).With owner's(?) names and several contemporary and later manuscript notes. With the first title-page slightly dirty, a faint water stain in the second, and minor marginal defects in 3 leaves of ad 3 (not affecting the text), but otherwise in very good condition. The impression of the tooling on the spine is no longer clear and there are a couple small holes and minor wear, but the binding remains in good condition, with most of the tooling on the boards sharp, so that the roll and stamps are very clear.l Ad 1: Adams P496; USTC 683278; VD16, ZV12239; ad 2: USTC 659360; VD16, V195; not in Adams; ad 3: Adams O62; Durling 2892; L. Elaut, “Para-historisch kommentaar op ... de Macer Floridus, in: Scientiarum historia I (1959), pp. 149-159, at p. 153; USTC 609421; VD16, O270; ad 4: Sinkankas 4170 & 4172; USTC 674861; VD16, M931 & P2691; Ward & Corozzi 1495; cf. Adams M519 (1539 Köln ed.); Wellcome 4039 (1531 Wechel ed.).