CLEYER (Andreas). SPECIMEN MEDICINAE SINICAE, SIVE OPUSCULA - Lot 34

CLEYER (Andreas). SPECIMEN MEDICINAE SINICAE, SIVE OPUSCULA MEDICA AD MENTEM SINENSIUM... Frankfurt, Joannis Petri Zubrodt, 1682. In-4° of [4]-48-99-[9]-54-2bl.-16 pages, light granite calf, spine ribbed and decorated (early binding). FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST ILLUSTRATED WORK ON CHINESE MEDICINE TO APPEAR IN EUROPE. Edited by Andreas Cleyer, a physician employed by the East India Company, the texts are translated from Chinese by the Polish Jesuit Michael Boym and illustrated with 30 full-page engraved PLATES and NUMEROUS GRAVURES in the text. These treatises are derived from medieval Mo-chueh writings, dealing mainly with the pulse, but also touching on acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicines. The beautiful engravings are taken from Chang Chieh-Pin's Lei ching (1624), which includes "the first acupuncture diagrams published in the West" (Norman, 489) and the anatomy of various internal organs. Several pages browned, 2 jaws split. The copy is accompanied by a signed autograph letter from Dr. Jean Lacassagne to Monsieur Denier, offering him the work. Nineteenth-century bookplate "Brion, doctoris medici". (Cordier, Bibl. Sinica II, 1470).