First edition of a comprehensive and influential medical work, written by the Parisian physician Jean de Renou (1568-1620). "Of particular influence on the practice of French pharmacy were the writings of Jean de Renou (1608), providing a formulary, a textbook, and a guide to the preservation of drugs, the use of pharmaceutical equipment and to the rules of professional ethics" (Sonnedecker). The work is divided into two parts, each with its own engraved part-title. The first part starts with some general chapters on the principles of pharmacology and what a proper apothecary is like. Several chapters follow on different types of medicines, their characteristics, how to compound them and when to prescribe them. Three large chapters cover the different ingredients and their medicinal powers, distinguishing between plants, minerals and parts of animals. Whereas the first part is more introductory and informative, the second part is more like a pharmacopoeia. It gives many recipes for medicines, with comments on the diseases or ailments they're supposed to cure.
With an owner's inscription on the back of the title-page. Somewhat browned throughout, with some marginal water stains, minor thumbing, a few small spots and a few marginal annotations in ink. Binding restored and rebacked, as noted above, hinges slightly cracked. Krivatsy 9564; G. Sonnedecker, Kremers and Urdang's History of Pharmacy (1976) p. 424.