Author: SYDENHAM, Th. [Transl. into Latin by Gilbert Havers].- First continental edition.-
Title: Methodus Curandi Febres, Propriis Observationibus Superstructa. Multa egerunt qui ante nos fuerunt, sed non peregerunt: multum adhuc restat operae, multumque restabit: neque ulli nato post mille Saecula praecidetur occasio aliquid adhuc adjiciendi. Seneca.
Description: Amstelodami, Apud Gerbrandum Schagen, 1666. 12mo. W. small woodc. vignet on printed title. Fine modern dark period style full marbl. clf., red title shield, giltlett. Covers w. single central floral tool & single dotted giltrule along the edges. Spine in compartments, w. giltruled lines and dotted giltruled lines. [A-D12, E8]. [C3 signed C4]. (1-14) - 15 - 112 pp. (p. 14 blank). (Contemp. annots. & underlinings; pp. 23 - 48 & 69-96 deep lower inner blank margin a vague watersp., unimportant). (Errata on p. 112 corrected in ink.). Sydenham's first published work. Very rare. With the printed dedication to his associate Robert Boyle. Rare first (continental) edition. As rare and hard to find as the London edition [which was published by J. Crook, March-May 1666]. Not present in a number of the main world renowned collections mentioned below. A very good copy of this rare Sydenham item. DSB vol. XIII, pp. 213 - 215: 'Sydenham's associates included Robert Boyle and John Locke. To the former, Sydenham dedicated his first work of 1666, while the latter contributed a commendatory poem to Sydenham in his second edition of 1668... a number of medical texts are in manuscripts in Locke's handwriting ... In his studies of acute diseases, Sydenham began by propounding a method for treating fevers, and he hoped that this method would improve the uncertain and often bad effects of treatment current in his day. The simplicity and naiveté of these early efforts (1666 and 1668) were quickly apparent to him as the Great Plague of London, followed by severe epidemics of smallpox and by puzzling variations in the concurrent continued fevers, demonstrated that the hoped-for reform of therapeutics necessitated closer attention to the differences among diseases confronting him... ': Comp. Heirs of Hippocrates, item 549 ['Observationes medicae circa morborum acutorum...'London, Kettilby, 1676]: 'In the later half of the seventeenth century, internal medicine took an entirely new turn in the work of one of its greatest figures, Sydenham, who revived the Hippocratic methods of observation and experience. He was one of the principal founders of epidemiology, and his clinical reputation rests upon firsthand accounts of malarial fever, scarlatina, measles, dysentery, and numerous other diseases. ... First published in 1666 under the title 'Methodus curandi Febres' ... it contains his important study on epidemiology and is one of the fundamental texts in this branch of medicine...': The original first edition 1666 not in Heirs, Not in the Norman Coll. [but comp. Norman coll. vol. II, 2038 & Sale vol. II, item 815, ed. 1676], NOT in Krivatsy [although a copy of the London 1666 was purchased by the NLM some years ago], but comp. 11626 [2nd edition 1668], NOT in Osler, but comp. 994: Waller, 9400 [London 1666] & 9401 [Amsterdam, 1666, here offered]: Wing STC, under S6312 [London 1666, 1668 NOT the Schagen ed.]: Pybus coll., 2060 & 2061 [Newcastle]: BMN, vol. I, p. 189: G&M comp. 2198 [3rd revised ed. 1676] 'The latin texts of both editions of the 'Methodus Curandi ...' [1666 & 1668] were reprinted, with Latham's translation [1848-50], an introduction and notes by G.G.Meynel, Folkestone, Winterdown Books, 1987.', see in this publication the preface p. xiii, p. 218 ['The 1st edition was reprinted once (Amsterdam, 1666, here offered). NO COPY of the Methodus has been listed in Book Auction Records since 28 October 1969 [to 1997] and ALL EDITIONS SEEM TO HAVE BECOME RARE LONG AGO...' and pp. 240 - 241 w. detailed collations and comparisons of content.: See also: Dewhirst, Dr. Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689) His Life and Original writings [London, Wellcome, 1966];

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