Observationes Medicae circa Morborum Acutorum Historiam et Curationem.

A landmark in the science of disease. First edition of the founding text of epidemiology. 'Although technically the third edition of his Methodus curandi febres (1666; 1668), Observations medicae was so much revised and enlarged as to constitute a new work in its own right' (Hook & Norman, The Norman Library of Science and Medicine 2038).

'Observationes medicae drew on the extensive observations Sydenham was able to make during and subsequent to the Great Plague of 1666' and 'represents the first major effort to create a nosology of disease. Sydenham's insight was that diseases could be understood and organized like plants; that is, they could be individually identified and classified, with each species of disease having its own natural history. In this, Sydenham shared the broader taxonomic interest of seventeenth-century science and medicine, imposing on diseases the same rigorous, methodical analysis and description that others were applying to the natural world in general. He took disease seriously as a natural phenomenon, an event in nature, and described it accordingly' (Grolier, One Hundred Books Famous in Medicine 35).

First edition; 8vo (17 x 11.5 cm); engraved portrait frontispiece by Blooteling after Mary Beale, woodcut initials, contemporary inked title to the lower edge of the text block, remains of old adhesive and paper on the recto of the frontispiece, short closed tear in the gutter of the title not affecting the image, tears at the edges of Z7 and Z8, uneven spotting and toning throughout the text; 19th-century quarter roan, spine gilt in compartments, red morocco label, marbled boards, binding rubbed with a little wear at the extremities, very good condition.

Morton, A Medical Bibliography 2198; Hook & Norman, The Norman Library of Science and Medicine 2038; Grolier Club, One Hundred Books Famous in Medicine 35; Wing S6314.