Icones veterum aliquot, ac recentium medicorum, philosophorumque elegiolis suis editae
By: opera I. Sambuci
Contributors: Borcht, Petrus van der, 1545-1608; Plantin, Christophe, approximately 1520-1589; Galle, Philippe, 1537-1612
Publisher: Ex officina Christophori Plantini
Published: 1574
Place of publication: Antuerpiae
Language: lat
Number of pages: 67
Subjects: Physicians; Early works to 1800; Portraits
Notes: Letterpress title printed within broad engraved border incorporating Plantin's compasses and motto.

Ports. by Petrus van der Borcht. See M. Rooses, Icones veterum aliquot ac recentium medicorum... reproduit en fac-simile, p. I.

All ports. after the first are etched roundels within strap-work borders incorporating animals, birds, putti and fruit. Subject's name printed letterpress above port., two elegiac couplets below. Nos. 49, 52, 57 and 60 consist of empty borders without ports. First plate depicts Hygeia, goddess of Health, the last depicts Sambucus.

Signatures: *² B-M⁶ N².

Getty copy contains a variant of Joannes Crato's port. at plate 44 (also etched by van der Borcht). It appeared in Frans Raphelengius's Leiden ed. of 1603; see Rooses, p. II. This raises the possibility that the plates of Getty copy are not from the 1st ed. despite the 1574 title leaf. The Getty copy, however, lacks 8 additional letterpress leaves that formed part of the 1603 ed. In addition Rooses writes that the text leaves and impressions of the 1603 ed. (except plate 44) had in fact been printed for the original ed. of 1574 and were inherited by Raphelengius and his father at Plantin's death. In the Getty copy, however, all plates are printed on the same paper as plate 44, which is inconsistent with Rooses' description of the 1603 ed. Another possible source is Willem Janssonius's Amsterdam editions of 1612 and 1613. A terminus ad quem is provided by the inscription dated 1613 on the front flyleaf of what appears to be an early, undisturbed binding.

In Getty copy an etched port. of Joannes Goropius has been mounted in the empty border of plate 57. It is taken from the 1604 or 1608 eds. of Philippe Galle's Illustrium Galliae Belgiacae scriptorum icones et elogi. See New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish, Philips Galle pt. 4, no. 629, states II & III.

Binding: early limp vellum. Two pairs of holes for ties at foredge. Edges red.

Inscription at head of front pastedown concerning death of Sambucus at Vienna, 1584. The writer is identified as M. Schurff, a former owner of the book, by Theodosius Gottfried Fuchs, whose ownership inscription follows. On front free endpaper verso is gift inscription of Elias Bachstein, rector of St. Matthew's in Bratislava, to his friend Johann Engelhart, dated 18 Sept. 1613.

Two loosely inserted typescript sheets bear a dealer's description of the present copy in German.