De Medicina Aegyptiorum.
Libri quatuor. De Medicina Indorum. Editio ultima. Paris Nicolaum Redelichuysen 1645
4to, pp. [xxii], 150 leaves, [51, index], [2], 39 leaves, [2, index]. Title printed in red and black. A very good copy re-bound in half calf, marbled boards. Title page soiled at edge. Light marginal damp stain to last few pages.
An early edition of one of the first western studies of non-western medicine. Prospero Alpini (1553-1618) went to Egypt in 1580, as physician to the Venetian consul in Cairo. From his studies of date palms he was the first to deduce the gender differences of plants. He originally published this work, the first serious study of Egyptian medicine, in 1591. It is said to contain the first account of the coffee plant to be published in Europe. The work of Jacob De Bondt, a later Dutch physician, was first published after his death in 1642. A pioneer of tropical medicine, he served the Dutch East India Company in Java, reported on the epidemic dysentry in Java in 1628, and was the first to provide a description of beri-beri.