RUEL, JEAN

Veterinariae medicinae libri II Iohanne Rvellio svessionensi interprete. Parisiis apud Simonem Colinaeum [Paris, Simon de Colines], 1530. First edition. 19th century vellum-backed boards. 13 1/4 x 9 1/8 inches (33.5 x 23 cm); *¹⁰ A a-p⁸; (16), 120 ff., with a superb large woodcut on the title of a mounted chevalier, woodcut initials throughout. Occasional light spotting, some foxing, marginal stain to one leaf, slight fraying to the final leaf, still an attractive and full-margined copy.

This is the first Latin edition of the Hippiatrica of Hierocles, the Greek veterinary surgeon who was among the most knowledgeable of the early writers on the subject. The DSB describes this work as "a Latin compilation of everything in veterinary medicine that had been written in Greek." The first Greek edition was published by Simon Grynaeus three years earlier in Basel. Ruel, one of the first French botanists, is also distinguished for publishing the first Latin translation of Dioscorides. His placement of the plants in alphabetical order made the work popular throughout Europe. Renouard calls this book "one of the most beautiful of those printed by Louis Blaubom for Simon Colines," and he reproduces the title woodcut in his bibliography. Osler identifies the horseman as Francois I, to whom the book is dedicated.

PROVENANCE: Pietro Angelio de Barga (1517-96), eminent humanist scholar and Latin poet; and his eldest son, Antonio de Angelio, who served as Bishop of Massa from 1570 to 1579; with their signatures at the foot of the title, and ms. notes on *2v pertaining to both Tasso and to Mattioli's edition of Dioscorides, comparing it to Ruel's earlier translation.