Author: MIZAULD, Antoine
Title: De hortensium arborum insitione opusculum, Antonii Mizaldi Monluciani studio et diligentia concinnatum. Eiusdem Dendranatome, hoc est partiu[m] corporis arborei explicatio brevis: ubi de earundem nutritione.
Description: Lutetiae: apud Federicum Morellum, 1560. 8vo. 27, [1] leaves. Some slight discolouration on several leaves. Contemporary vellum. Printer's device on title. Provenance: 18th-century circular book stamp (ink smudged) on title-page with initials " M.D.I.P.D.R.D.T." round the circumference and "C.G." in centre; together with an 18th-century ecclesiastical ownership inscription in manuscript "est loci Sanctae Mariae de Jesu Montisfortini 1704" [i.e. Montefortino - present-day Artena in Lazio]; manuscript spine title and shelfmark at head of spine "P/V". ***** A treatise on the grafting of trees. Mizauld (1510?-1578) studied at Bourges and at Paris and at first devoted himself to medicine. Later, along with Oronce Finé, he turned to astrology and the secrets of Nature (he was astrologer to Marguerite de Valois). J.P. Niceron (Mémoires, vol.40, pp.200-13) credits Mizauld with the authorship of 41 books including works on comets, astrology, cosmography, sympathy and antipathy, almanacs, mathematics, agriculture and gardening. De Thou commends him for his learning; Niceron, however, complains of his books being stuffed with false and useless notions. ***** Bound with: DIOCLES Carystius. Aurea ad Antigonum regem epistola, de morborum praesagiis, & eorumdem exte[m]poraneis remediis. Adhaec, Arnaldi a Villa-Nova ... de salubri hortensium usu. Antonii Mizaldi ... cura & diligentia. Lutetiae: apud Federicum Morelleum, 1572. 8vo. [4], 27, [1] leaves. According to Pliny, Diocles was the second physician after Hippocrates in time and fame, a contemporary of Aristotle (384-322 B.C.). His writings dealt with animal anatomy, physiology, aetiology, symptomatology, prognostics, dietetics and botany. The surviving fragments show the influence of the Sicilian School of Empedocles (four humours, importance of the heart, the pneuma), of Hippocrates (the body considered as organism), of Aristotle (methodological concepts and terminology). Diocles' originality consists in uniting these different trends. See W. Jaeger, Diokles von Karystos. ***** References: Item 1: Adams M1497; Wellcome I, 4353; J. Dumoulin, Vie et oeuvres de Fédéric Morel, 38; not in the Hunt Catalogue. Item 2: Adams D466; Wellcome I, 1762; Dumoulin, 200.

Keywords: trees, botany, Greek, medicine, Diocles, antiquarian, Paris printing


See more books from our catalog: Antiquarian French