SPACH, Israel (1560-1610). Gynaeciorum sive de mulierum tum communibus, tum gravidarum, parientium, et puerperarum affectibus et morbis. Strasbourg: Lazarus Zetzner, 1597.

Norman copy of the greatest gynaecological encyclopedia of its time. First edition of this assembly of both classic and "modern" texts under the editorship of Israel Spach, a professor of various at the University of Strasbourg and a bibliographically minded physician. It was "the largest such collection of its day, reprinting most of the works collected in Caspar Wolff’s Volumen gynaeciorum and Gaspard Bauhin’s Gynaeciorum sive de mulierum affectibus (1586-88), and adding several other treatises. The collection includes works by Plater (whose anatomy of the female genitalia heads the collection), Moschion, Le Boë, Montanus, Paré, and many others. Some of the anatomical woodcuts are taken from Vesalius’s Fabrica, in particular his 'masculinized' representation of the female reproductive organs; also illustrated are various surgical and gynecological instruments, including a speculum" (Norman). Adams S-1517; Norman 1977 (this copy); Garrison and Morton 6013.

Folio (320 x 203mm). Title printed in red and black. Woodcut printer’s device on title, and woodcut illustrations in text (title and final few pages browned, some other intermittent toning, a few spots). Early vellum with yapped edges, red and blue sprinkled edges. Provenance: "Monsieur Lollier, Medicin" (inscription on flyleaf locating Belfort) – "Ludovicus Buxtorfius Med." (inscription noted death in 1761) – Prof. A.R. Walter (inscription dated 1856) – Haskell Norman, 1915-1996 (bookplate; his sale, 18 March 1998, lot 189).