Merckin, Georg Abraham

Lindenius renovatus sive, Johannis Antonidae van der Linden de scriptis medicis libri duo. . . .[Lindenius renovatus] Johann Friedrich Blumenbach's copy with his signed bookplate.

Publisher Information: Nuremberg: Johann Georg Endter, 1686.

Linden, Johannes Antonides van der (1609-64). Lindenius renovatus sive . . . de scriptis medicis libri duo . . . noviter praeter haec addita plurimorum authorum . . . a Georg. Abrah. Mercklino . . . 4to. [22], 210, 221-1101, [55]pp. Lacking Part II, “Cynosura medica” (approx. 170pp.), containing Mercklin’s subject index to Lindenius renovatus. Engraved frontispiece. Nuremberg: Endter, 1686. 200 x 163 mm. Vellum ca. 1686, head of spine and hinges repaired. Occasional light foxing, but fine. From the library of anthropologist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840), with booklabel bearing his autograph signature on the front pastedown and annotations and underlinings possibly his on at least 50 leaves. Modern bookplate of Gordon W. Jones, M.D.

First Edition of Georg Abraham Mercklin’s considerably expanded version of van der Linden’s bibliography of medicine. First published in 1637, Van der Linden’s was the most complete medical bibliography of its time; it was also the most modern of early medical bibliographies, both in its contents and format. Mercklin (1664-1702) supplied corrections, biographical material on authors, and additions that included the innovative listing of articles from the publications of learned societies.

This copy is from the library of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, the founder of modern anthropology. He was the author of De generis humani varietate nativa (1775), in which he divided humanity into four races based on head shape, skin color and hair type; he later added a fifth race, and in the expanded third edition of De generis (1795) he introduced the famous terms “Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, American and Malayan” to describe the “white, yellow, black, red and brown” varieties of mankind. Brodman, Development of Medical Bibliography, pp. 29-33; no. 14. Fulton, Great Medical Bibliographers, pp. 35-36.

Book Id: 43445

Price: $1,250.00