De Re Medica Libri Octo.
by Celsus, Aulus Cornelius (c. 25 BCE-c. 50 CE)
Geneva: Sumptibus Iohannis de Tournes, 1625.
Size 3 1/4 by 4 3/4"
Woodcut printer's device to title, large device with angel to verso of last leaf; some foxing, bound in full original vellum over boards.
Text in Latin

Celebrated treatise On Medicine (De Medicina).
"The work’s encyclopedic arrangement follows the tripartite division of medicine at the time as established by Hippocrates and Asclepiades — diet, pharmacology, and surgery."
Celsus's eight books on medicine, part of a much larger general encyclopedia which has not come down to us from antiquity, treat the history of medicine, pathology, diseases, anatomy, pharmacology, surgery, and orthopedics. He is valued for his style and clarity. In the main, he advocates for following nature rather than interfering, with advice to let a fever take its course, for example. He explains how to prepare narcotics, writes against vivisection, and weighs the pros and cons of animal and human experimentation. Celsus is also credited with identifying the cardinal signs of inflammation: calor, dolor, tumor, and rubor.
It is divided into eight books.
Book 1 – The History of Medicine (includes references to eighty medical authors, some of whom are known only through this book)
Book 2 – General Pathology
Book 3 – Specific Diseases
Book 4 – Parts of the Body
Book 5 and 6 – Pharmacology
Book 7 – Surgery
Book 8 – Orthopedics
In the "Prooemium" or introduction to De Medicina there is an early discussion of the relevance of theory to medical practice and the pros and cons of both animal experimentation and human experimentation. Celsus discusses, for example, the case of Herophilos and Erasistratos, who he asserts practised vivisection.
In the treatment of disease, Celsus's principal method was to observe and watch over the operations of Nature, and to regulate rather than oppose them, conceiving that fever consisted essentially in an effort of the body to throw off some morbid cause, and that, if not unduly interfered with, the process would terminate in a state of health. On occasions, however, he boldly recommends the use of the scalpel; his rules for blood letting and purgatives are laid down with detail and precision; and many of the rules he prescribes were not very different from those still in use at the beginning of the 19th century.
His work contains detailed descriptions of the symptoms and different varieties of fever, and he is credited with recording the cardinal signs of inflammation known as "Celsus tetrad of inflammation": calor (warmth), dolor (pain), tumor (swelling) and rubor (redness and hyperaemia).
He goes into great detail regarding the preparation of numerous ancient medicinal remedies including the preparation of opioids. In addition, he describes many 1st century Roman surgical procedures which included removal of a cataract, treatment for bladder stones, and the setting of fractures.
Celsus wrote on the anatomy of the eye and was the first to call one of its layers the choroid. During the twentieth century, many historians claimed that Celsus believed that the crystalline lens is in the exact center of the eye. In fact, Celsus made no specific statement about the position of the crystalline lens, and his Graeco-Roman contemporaries did understand that the lens is located to the front.
Hippocrates used the Greek word karkinos 'crab, crayfish' to refer to malignant tumors as carcinomas. It was Celsus who translated the Greek term into the Latin cancer, also meaning 'crab'.
Aulus Cornelius Celsus (c. 25 BC – c. 50 AD) was a Roman encyclopaedist, known for his extant medical work, De Medicina, which is believed to be the only surviving section of a much larger encyclopedia.
The De Medicina is a primary source on diet, pharmacy, surgery and related fields, and it is one of the best sources concerning medical knowledge in the Roman world. The lost portions of his encyclopedia likely included volumes on agriculture, law, rhetoric, and military arts. He made contributions to the classification of human skin disorders in dermatology, such as Myrmecia, and his name is often found in medical terminology regarding the skin, e.g., kerion celsi and area celsi.


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