24; 46 folding leaves. Two vols. 8vo, orig. blue wrappers, orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers, new stitching. Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, & Edo: Kawachiya Kihei et al., 1848.

Second edition (1st ed.: 1770); both editions are very rare. This book, in Chinese with Japanese reading marks, is the commentary by Asai (1706-80), the famous painter of bamboo and court physician of the Owari fiefdom, on the biography of Bian Que (active sometime in 5th-3rd centuries B.C.), the founding father of scientific Chinese medicine. This biography first appeared in Shiji [Records of the Grand Historian], written by Sima Qian. The Shiji, completed ca. 94... More

Fine added engraved title (a little cropped at foot), woodcut plate between pp. 14 & 15 in the first part (T4), & numerous woodcuts in the text (two slightly cropped). 5 p.l. (incl. added engraved title), 112, [16], 121-142, [3], 150-192 pp. Small 4to, cont. calf (a little rubbed), red morocco lettering piece on spine. London: R. Mab, 1634.

First edition and quite uncommon on the market; this is “the first comprehensive illustrated English book on waterworks and hydraulic machinery. It also includes sections on drawing, painting, recipes, and folk remedies, as well as one on fireworks and incendiary devices largely derivative of earlier English and continental works... More

30 black & white brush & ink drawings of diseased horses. Scroll (130 x 27,630 mm.), 94 joined sheets, with several extension flaps, which fold down with additional text, recently & expertly backed. Omi Province (today’s Shiga Province): the most modern date we find in the scroll is 1809.

A remarkably long scroll (90 feet); this is the most comprehensive old Japanese encyclopedia of horse diseases and their treatments we have encountered. The text includes recipes for medicines and acupuncture techniques as well as numerous case histories. There are references in this scroll to texts being copied in 1611. Each of the 94 sheets is numbered. It... More

Illus. in the text (Vol. 6 has 13 full-page illus.). Six vols. 8vo, modern wrappers (first leaf of Vol. IV with small defect obscuring one or two characters, Vol. VI with two natural paper flaws touching a few characters of text), new stitching. [China]: two Prefaces dated 1644.

First edition of this influential Chinese ophthalmological work, which records 108 types of eye diseases and has more than 300 prescriptions as well as illustrations and plentiful data. The book discusses medical records of ophthalmology and the theory of five orbiculi (illustrated in the first volume), the eight regions of the whites of the eyes... More

Finely engraved title, woodcut head- & tailpieces, & 2776 woodcuts in the text. 20 p.l. (incl. initial blank & engraved title), 1630, [48] pp., one blank leaf. Thick folio (350 x 210 mm.), cont. calf (well-rebacked by Trevor Lloyd with the original spine laid-down, a few gouges carefully filled-in, corners bruised), panelled in gilt & blind, large gilt device in center of each cover, with initials “W H” on either side. London: A. Islip for J. Norton & R. Whitakers, 1633.

First edition of Thomas Johnson’s expanded and corrected version of Gerarde’s Herball (1st ed.: 1597), the most famous of all English herbals. “Many errors made by Gerard in his text... More

75; 64 folding leaves. Two vols. 8vo (275 x 180 mm.), orig. pale blue wrappers (label on upper covers rather corroded but legible), new stitching. [Japan]: Preface dated March 1755.

A rare commentary by the Japanese Aizu(?) fiefdom doctor Setsuo Kagayama on Wan jin yi tong by Tingxian Gong (1522-1619), physician of the Imperial Medical Academy in Beijing. The Wan jin yi tong is part of a larger work, the Wanbing Huichun of 1585 [Restoration of Health from Myriad Diseases], the author’s most famous work, which had pharmaceutical recipes from about 240 different ingredients.

Gong came from a prominent family of physicians in Jiangxi Province. He became well known at age 71 after curing a case of severe abdominal distention suffered by the favorite concubine of the king of Lu. He wrote many medical books in his later years. More

Wooden board with thick frame (1360 x 650 x 70 mm.), orig. metalwork pieces on sides & corners, with orig. metal fittings on top to facilitate hanging perpendicularly outside the shop. Both sides carved with characters of the same text, one side artfully carved in sosho tai (a calligraphic cursive script), the other side finely carved in gyosho tai (a semi-cursive script), with furigana reading marks. Characters painted with black pigment & highlighted in gold lacquer. [Japan]: date of manufacture of the board is engraved on one of the cornerpieces (in trans.): “February 1804” by “kazarishi Kinjiro Kamiya” (“ornamental metalwork... More

Printed in Chinese with Japanese reading marks. Five full-page woodcuts in the text. Eight parts in 15 vols. Large 8vo, orig. wrappers stained with persimmon juice (wrappers rubbed), orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers, later stitching. [Kyoto]: Preface dated 1575; Murakami Heirakuji, 1642.

A very early Japanese edition; the first edition was published in China in 1575. Yixue rumen was the work of Li Chan (fl. 1573-1619), a Ming dynasty physician. An influential introductory Chinese medical textbook, it is itself a condensation of the important Gu Jin Yi Tong [Old and Modern Medical Generalities] by Xu Chunfu, published in 1556 in 100... More

xxiv, 616 pp.; 1 p.l., [3]-688 pp. Two vols. Small 8vo, cont. mottled sheep (head of spine of Vol. II chipped), spines gilt, red morocco lettering pieces on spines. Paris: Lacombe, 1766.

Second (first pirated) edition of the first modern chemical dictionary. Although technical dictionaries had appeared earlier, this was the first attempt to cover the whole field of chemistry, pure and applied, in an encyclopedic manner. The introduction traces the progress of chemistry from its origins to the time of Stahl and Boerhaave. The book was an immediate success and it was several times reprinted and translated; it produced many imitators... More

Some illus. in the text. 86; 64; 57 folding leaves. Three vols. 8vo (237 x 164 mm.), orig. wrappers (some worming), orig. manuscript title-labels on upper covers, new stitching. [Japan]: on final leaf of third vol.: “1786” & “1791.”

A most unusual manuscript: a collection of texts, both Chinese and Japanese, entirely devoted to moxibustion, its theories, and its practices. Most Japanese manuscripts and books include acupuncture along with moxibustion. What is particularly interesting to us about this manuscript is that many of the texts by these authors seem not to have been published but passed on by word of mouth.

Moxibustion, or the burning of moxa, comes under the rubric of counter-irritation. It is the process burning of a combustible plant, usually mugwort, on or against certain areas of the skin. More

A richly illustrated manuscript, important and influential in the history of medicine and surgery in Japan, revealing the introduction of European medical knowledge in Japan, through Ambroise Paré’s Chirurgie, Scultetus’s Armamentarium Chirurgicum, and Spigelius’s Opera. This is a luxury copy (only one similar set survives, at Nagasaki), in oblong folio format, and written and finely illustrated on fine thick mulberry paper. Our manuscript contains 134 exquisitely drawn and richly hand-colored illustrations.

Chinzan (or Eikyu) Narabayashi (1648-1711), belonged to a family of professional interpreters in Nagasaki and became proficient in the Dutch language. He had contact with several Dutch... More

Numerous finely detailed brush & ink illus. in the text, some heightened in red ink or gray wash. 45 folding leaves. Three parts in one vol. 8vo (237 x 164 mm.), orig. patterned blue wrappers, manuscript title label on upper cover, new stitching. On final page (in trans.): “Copied in Kyoto in 1813.”

This richly illustrated manuscript is part of the Chinese tradition of skin-deep orthopedic therapies associated with waike, literally “external therapies.” Texts like ours therefore required numerous instructive illustrations of the structure of the skeleton, therapeutic methods, bone-setting, and orthopedic instruments.

There are several other surviving manuscript copies of this anonymous text (the one at Tokyo University Library is incomplete; there is another in the collection of the Naito Museum of Pharmaceutical Science and Industry in Gifu Prefecture). The author describes methods of deep massage and manipulations. He describes and names all 332 bones of the body, starting with the skull and ending with the feet. There are two magnificent views of the human skeleton — front and back. The author offers a number of case histories where he employed manipulations and/or deep massage therapies. More