A very good copy of the first edition of this exceptional and ground-breaking medical book the first on eye surgery and the first ophthalmic book in the German language. It provides the first comprehensive view of Renaissance eye surgery. Georg Bartisch (1535-1607) started his career as an itinerant surgeon in Saxony, Bohemia and Silesia. Having settled in Dresden, he became renowned for his surgical techniques to treat cataract and remove eye cancers; he used his vast experience to write Ophthalmodouleia . These achievements earned him the post of oculist to Duke Augustus I of Saxony, to whom the work is dedicated. Only 3 works on ophthalmology had been published before Bartisch s, and none so lavishly illustrated. The woodcuts, probably sketched by Bartisch himself, were cut by Hans Hewamaul. Two of the woodcut illustrations were produced with overlays showing anatomical parts lying successively one under the other. Bartisch was the first to illustrate the brain and the eye in this manner (Albert, Introduction , ii). The 13 chapters span the anatomy of the head and eye, eye conditions and their surgical treatments (with special attention to the five different kinds of cataract Bartisch s specialism), as well as pharmacopoeia. Very interesting are the sections devoted to strabismus and the squint mask a medical instrument first mentioned in writing in the 7th century covering the head and face in different ways (even with funnels around the eyes), according to the type of strabismus. Along state-of-the-art surgical techniques, a few sections reveal the unexpected role which superstition and popular religion played in Bartisch s overall understanding of disease and cure. Two large woodcuts show handsomely portrayed amulets to be worn, round the neck, by people suffering from weak sight; among these are a heart with a crucifix, a pendant with a serpent wrapped around a cross, and a small book. A fascinating detail shedding light on the marketing of early modern medicine is found in two woodcuts portraying a pair of pliers which can be used to stamp the doctor s name onto little cakes used to administer medications. A most attractive medical work, with unusual illustrations. This copy was purchased soon after its publication by Andreas Laubmar (or Laubmaier, fl. late C16/early C17), professor of law at Tubingen and councillor to the Duke of Wurttemberg.
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