Louise Bourgeois, 1609

BOURGEOIS [BOURSIER], Louise (1563-1636). Observations diverses sur la sterilité, perte de fruict, fecondité, accouchements, et maladies des femmes et enfants nouveaux naiz. Paris: chez A. Saugrain, 1609.

The rare first edition, first issue, of the work that founded obstetrics as a science, and the first obstetrics book published by a midwife. Louise Bourgeois was the royal midwife to Queen Marie de Medici of France, delivering all her children, as well as a well-known authority on midwifery and prolific author on the subject—at one point declaring that she was la premiere femme de mon art qui mette la plume en main. She had an unusual education, training under her husband, himself a student of the famous surgeon Ambroise Paré. "She was one of the pioneers of scientific midwifery; her Observations was the vade mecum of contemporary midwives" (Garrison and Morton). Her practice drew on the work of Paré as well as Guillemeau; "her innovative method for inducing premature labor in patients with contracted pelves is a variant of Paré's induction of labor in cases on uterine hemorrhage" (Norman). This copy has I8 cancelled as usual; the first issue, as here, had many errors in foliation, which were reset in the later issue. RBH records only two copies of this work at auction, one of which was the Haskell Norman copy. Garrison and Morton 6145; Norman 290.

Octavo (167 x 94mm). Engraved title, 2 engraved portraits (a few stains). 19th-century French brown morocco, paneled in blind with gilt corner ornaments (spine and extremities worn). Provenance: "Docteur L. Santé" (gift inscription dated 1915 from Georges Grappe, 1897-1947, art historian and curator of the Rodin museum).