Severinus Peter (1 results)

Soft cover. Condition: Good. 1st Edition. Severinus [1542 (some note 1540)-1602] was Royal Physician to King Frederik II of Denmark as well as to his son King Christian IV. Partington II pp 163-4:ÂÂThis is his most important work in which he interprets and advocates for the Paracelsian approach and dismisses the traditional medicine of Galen. Partington: Severinus defended the universal medicine by two arguments. Just as there are poisons which kill all men, so there must be drugs which cure them all and all diseases. Antimony destroys all imperfect metals but not gold, hence there must be a medicine which destroys all impurities in the body but does not harm the heart, the source of life. BOOK DETAILS AND CONDITION REPORT: 4to, cont. soft vellum: 8 leaves (including titlepage), 416 pp, 6 leaves (poem in Latin hexameters by Johannes Pratensis), 1 leaf (errata on verso), 1 leaf (publishers seal on recto). Vellum binding soiled with some losses on front cover and spine, tears in pastedowns, titlepage repaired with loss of two letters, dampstain in preliminary leaves preceding p 1. Second edition published in 1616 (Erfurt), third edition in 1660 (The Hague). The National Library of Medicine has the 1571 while Neville and Ferguson list only the 1660 edition.