Girolamo Mercurio, 1601

MERCURIO, Girolamo (1530-1606). La commare o riccoglitrice. Venice: G. B. Ciotti, 1601.

Revised second edition of the first Italian book on obstetrics—from the Bibliotheca Colbertina. The treatise contains three parts, the first devoted to natural labor and care of pregnant women, the second to abnormal situations and their treatment, and the third to other diseases and conditions which can affect laboring women and newborns. "The numerous illustrations are particularly striking, especially those depicting caesarean section, an operation on the living advocated by Mercurio for patients with a contracted pelvis. The uterine pictures are crude and uninformative, but those showing the postures favorable for delivery are remarkably vivid and realistic" (Cutter and Viets, A short history of midwifery, p. 220). The first edition of 1595-6 is extremely rare. There is also a third edition which is often mistaken for this second edition, with an identical title page but the dedication dated 1604. Krivatsy 7804; Wellcome 4259; Garrison and Morton 6144.

Three parts in one, quarto (203 x 145mm). Engraved general title, engraved and woodcut illustrations in text, part title to book 3 dated 1600 and with engraved device (some browning, small dampstain in upper outer corner). Contemporary limp vellum with yapp edges, stamped with the gilt arms of the House of Arenberg on upper cover (lacking ties). Provenance: Jean Baptiste Colbert, 1619-1683, Louis XIV’s minister of finance and the creator of the Académie des Sciences and other cultural institutions of France – House of Arenberg (supralibros and bookplate).