205 - HORTUS SANITATIS. — Ortus sanitatis. No place, no date [Strasbourg, Johann Prüss, no later than 1498]. Folio, Bradel-style cardboard binding, plain spine, red title label, date “1485” in ink at the top, red edges (late 18th-century binding).

HORTUS SANITATIS. — Ortus sanitatis. No place, no date [Strasbourg, Johann Prüss, no later than 1498]. Folio, Bradel-style cardboard binding, plain spine, red title label, date “1485” in ink at the top, red edges (late 18th-century binding). A very rare incunabulum edition of the *Hortus sanitatis*. (GW, 13549. - HC, 8942*. - Goff, H488. - Davies, Fairfax Murray: *German*, vol. I, pp. 342–344.) A comprehensive compilation of all medieval knowledge in the fields of botany, zoology, and medicine, the *Hortus sanitatis* is a major work of Renaissance medical literature. Its text is derived from the *Circa instans* by Platearius, a 12th-century physician from Salerno, which was subsequently expanded during the Middle Ages to become the *Gart der Gesundheit*, or “Garden of Health.” Finally, after numerous additions, it became the almost entirely new work known today as the *Hortus sanitatis*. The first edition, in Latin, was published in Mainz in 1491 by Meydenbach, and was followed by two undated Latin editions from Strasbourg attributed to Johann Prüss. The first French edition was published by Antoine Vérard in Paris around 1500–1501. A superb edition from Strasbourg, printed in two columns in Gothic type at 54/55 lines per page. Its illustrations, copied from those of the first edition, are adorned with more than 1,000 column-wide woodcuts—roughly one per chapter, each a quarter of a page in size—many of which are repeated, depicting various species of plants, mammals, birds, insects, and fish, as well as monsters and mythical creatures; some woodcuts relate to mineralogy, depicting figures working with precious stones. There are also three beautiful full-page woodcuts: one on the reverse of the title page, showing a professor and four students, another at the beginning of the *Tractatus de animalibus* depicting the human skeleton, and a third for the *Tractatus de urinis* or treatise on the examination of urine, in which a physician is seen selecting medicinal substances at a pharmacist’s shop. These three engravings are from the Strasbourg edition published in 1497 by Grüninger of Jérôme Brunschwig’s medical book, titled *Dis ist das buch der Cirurgia*. On the upper inside front cover: a handwritten ex-libris in ink and a 19th-century engraved ex-libris bearing a coat of arms. Handwritten note at the bottom of the title page: Gedruckt zum Mainz mit Fausts und Schöffers Zeichen im Jahr 1485 (reference to a 1485 edition of *Gart der Gesundheit*). Text underlined in pencil across several leaves. A very attractive copy in an old binding, complete. Grease stain affecting several leaves (especially in the margins of the first quire and in quire K). Small tear with no loss or repair on leaves e5, l3, m3, L2, O6, &1. A hole at the bottom of the title page and in the margin of the second leaf (filled in); a small wormhole has removed a letter from the last line of leaf a2. Expert: Mr. Dominique Courvoisier