Physicians, Do no harm! With a fine engraved title & brocade-paper wrappers.

[Medicine] / [Decorated Paper] / Adolph Holtzklau. Dissertatio medica inauguralis, de curationibus heroicis, maxima cum circumspectione adhibendis... Lugduni Batavorum: Apud Conradum Wishoff, 1723. 4to [25.0 x 19.6 cm], 19 pp., the first of which is an engraved ‘factotum’ title, also with woodcut head-piece and initial. Bound in 18th-century brocade paper, flyleaves renewed, all edges gilt, holes indicate that piece was formerly stab-stitched, twentieth-century offprint tipped in at rear (see below). Minor rubbing and staining to binding. Internally quite clean and retaining wide margins.
 
 
Rare (2 U.S. copies: Cornell & National Library of Medicine) first and only edition of this 1723 dissertation from Leiden University urging physicians to avoid ‘heroic cures’ unless absolutely necessary. The work is thus a rather modern iteration of the ancient prescription of “do no harm,” in that it urges caution in the use of intense, severe, or risky medical methods such as aggressive bloodletting or strong purgatives.
 
The fine engraved ‘factotum’ title page is by Frans van Bleyswyck (1671-1746). It depicts Asclepius and personifications of Pharmacy and Anatomy and was produced expressly for printing medical dissertations at Leiden University. A twentieth-century owner of this volume, a certain Dr. Wille, was interested primarily in the engraving: At the rear of the work, he tipped in an offprint of an article on Frans van Bleyswyck’s medical-dissertation engravings. The offprint is inscribed to him by its author, H. K. Hofmeier (“Die von Francois van Bleiswijck zur Zeit Boerhaaves gestochenen Titelseiten der Leidener medizinischen Doktordissertationen,” Ärzliche Mitteilungen: Deutsches Ärzteblatt, vol. 46, no. 44 [Dec. 1961], pp. 2504-2506).
 
Both 18th-century brocade-papers used in the binding are lovely. The endpapers are modern, and the decorated papers were apparently re-glued to the text block, perhaps when the offprint was tipped in. The effect suggests potential remboîtage, but it should be noted that the edges of both the wrappers and the text block are uniformly gilt, a sign that perhaps they were always of a piece. 
 
 
OCLC and KVK locate two U.S. copies: Cornell National Library of Medicine.