CELSUS, Aulus Cornelius.

Lyon, Ioan. Tornaesium & Guililmum Gazeium, 1554. 16mo. 581,+ (25) pp. Title within wood cut frame. Near contemporay vellum, spine with raised bands and with title in ink, end papers partly loose. Traces of ties. Owner’s signature of Jacobus Postel ”Med. doctor” on the title page together with a with ink erased signature. USTC 151482. Cartier 271. Hoffman I, p. 91. Second edition by Jean de Tournes in Lyon, a reprint of the 1549-edition. They are based on the Gryphius edition from 1542. It contains from p. 534 ”Q. Sereni Samonici De medicina praecepta saluberrima, Antonii Molinii Matisconensis opera, diligenter emaculata” and from page 576 the hexameter poem ”De ponderibus en Mensuris” by Q. Rhemnius Fanniu. Almost nothing is known of Celsus, except that he lived in the time of Tiberius and that he wrote an encyclopedia which treated agriculture, medicin, law, mlitary tactics, philosophy and rhetoric. Only ”De Medicina” have survived. It contains much supetstition but also a good deal of practical wisdom and common sense. The work ”Medicina Praecepta” by Serenus Sammonicus, who lived in Caracalla’s time, is based on Pliny.