BOORDE, Andrew (?1490-1549)
10.12.2025 12:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S| Auctioneer | CHRISTIE'S |
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| Lieu de l'événement | Royaume-Uni, London |
| Commission | see on Website% |
ID 1514452
Lot 153 | BOORDE, Andrew (?1490-1549)
Valeur estimée
6000GBP £ 6 000 – 8 000
[The breuiary of helthe, for all maner of syckenesses and diseases the whiche may be in man, or woman]. London: Wylllyam Myddelton, 15 July 1547.
One of the first books on medicine written and printed in the English language, by the Tudor physician Andrew Boorde. First edition, no copy at auction in almost a century. The Breviary comprises a handbook of domestic medicine in 384 short chapters, arranged alphabetically and presented as a definition, cause and remedy, with a second part comprising an appendix in 73 chapters. The subjects range from ‘Black Melancholy’ and ‘Dulness of Wit’ to warts, fleas and pestilence. Many of the remedies are not for the faint-hearted – for itching, one should ‘prepare a good payre of nayles, to scratch and claw and tear and rend the skin, that the corrupt blood may run out’ – though drunkenness can be resolved if one can ‘drink in the morning a dish of milk’. Andrew Boorde was an English traveller, physician and writer, a correspondent of Thomas Cromwell and sometime physician to the noble houses of Norfolk and Arran. His Fyrst Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge (c.1547) is considered the earliest English guidebook to the Continent (see D. Guthrie, ‘The “Breviary” and “Dyetary” of Andrew Boorde (1490-1549), Physician, Priest and Traveller [Synopsis]’, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, July 1944, vol 37, pp.507–509). ESTC S5061. Only three copies recorded in English institutions (Christ’s College, Cambridge, Royal College of Surgeons, Wellcome Collection); the last copy at auction was Sotheby’s, 6 July 1931, lot 96.
Two parts in one volume, quarto (172 x 126mm). Woodcut border to title of second part, historiated, zoological and decorated woodcut initials (lacking title of first part with woodcut border and five further leaves [part I, A1 and A4 lacking; part II, A2-3, C3-4 lacking], four unsigned leaves containing table of contents and colophon between parts I and II now bound at the end, A2 rehinged, upper left corners of part II:A1 and 4 restored, margins sometimes chipped and split, faint dampstaining throughout). Early 19th-century calf, gauffered edges (rebacked, edges renewed, rubbed). Provenance: 16th-century marginal annotations in English, on the translation of technical terms between English and Latin; John Bray (17th-century ownership inscription, 'HIS Booke', in margin of part I:B2); Royal Society of Medicine (bookstamps on upper endleaves, one dated 14 December 1923).
| Lieu d'origine: | Angleterre, Europe du Nord, Europe, Royaume-Uni |
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| Catégorie maison de vente aux enchères: | Médecine et sciences, Livres et manuscrits, Livres imprimés |
| Lieu d'origine: | Angleterre, Europe du Nord, Europe, Royaume-Uni |
|---|---|
| Catégorie maison de vente aux enchères: | Médecine et sciences, Livres et manuscrits, Livres imprimés |
| Adresse de l'enchère |
CHRISTIE'S 8 King Street, St. James's SW1Y 6QT London Royaume-Uni | |
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| Téléphone | +44 (0)20 7839 9060 | |
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