Nicolò Monardes. DELLE COSE CHE VENGONO PORTATE DALL'INDIE OCCIDENTALI PERTINENTI ALL'USO DELLA MEDICINA. 2 parts bound together in one. Venice: Presso di Giordano Ziletti, 1575. Period parchment, ink manuscript title. 8vo; *8 a-l8; *4 A-H8 I2 (mis-bound). Roman type with italic; text in Italian. With separate title page for part two, woodcut device on title pages, woodcut ornaments and initials, illustrations of plants and animals throughout. Sabin 49939; Edit16 41285; USTC 843067.

6 3/8 x 4 1/2 in.

From the Collection of Professor Roberto Severino, Washington, D.C.

Nicolás Monardes (1493-1588) was a Spanish doctor who wrote numerous medical texts beginning in the 1530s. While living and working in Seville, he learned and wrote about the use of plants such as roses and tobacco that could be used for medicine. The last several decades of his life were spent learning about the healing possibilities of materials arriving from the Americas. This medical text, Of Things Which are Brought From the West Indies Pertinent to the Use of Medicine, discusses the healing properties of herbs, various drinks, and more, and includes advice on curing numerous maladies from sciatica to stomachache.

Significant wear to parchment showing age, with staining, small losses, and tears at spine, spine slightly cocked, lacking ties; with significant damp staining (especially in second half of text), occasional wormhole or trail, small stains and marks, edge losses, I2 with loss and partially detached. Lacking front flyleaf; first and second parts mis-bound, with last several leaves of the final gathering of book two, part 1 lacking, yet an important and very scarce title.