pdf - Roger Gaskell Rare Books

philosophy, is topical in another respect too. In 1600 Giordano Bruno had
been burnt at the stake in Rome, and it has been suggested, by Jean Jacquot,
that Hill’s book was a tribute to his memory. But if so, Hill was careful to
cover himself: he cites Bruno (as ‘Nolanus’) explicitly in a marginal note
only; he states, in the title and in the dedicatory epistle, that he is oVering
hypotheses only (‘proposita simpliciter, non edocta’); and he declares that if
any of them is contrary to the Catholic faith, ‘igni illud et inferis mando’ (‘I
commit it to the Xames and hell’). And if he published the book in Catholic
Paris, the centre of Lullian studies, he sought safety for himself in protestant
Rotterdam.’ (Hugh Trevor­Roper in ODNB.)
Rousset, Exercitatio medica assertionis novae (1603). A treatise on the
dis puted septum of the heart. Rousset is famous for his Traitté nouveau de
l’hysterotomotokie (Paris, 1581), the Wrst monograph on the Cesarian section
(for Pagel’s copy of the 1590 edition, see my Catalogue 41, no. 109). This
and his other works were based on practical experience. The present work
however ‘ne correspond point aux autres. Son auteur, tout occupé de théorie,
ne lui a pas même donné un air de vraisemblance’ (Bayle and Thillaye, I, p.
372). Rousset’s dates are unknown, but because of the rarity of this book, his
death is usually put earlier, Krivatsy suggesting 1590.
Provenance. Fenton was a prominent member of the Barber­Surgeons’
Company and twice Master. He was one of the resident surgeons at Barts
Hospital where his colleagues included John Woodall (author of The surgions
mate, see below) and William Harvey. He had a licence from the College of
Physicians to administer internal medicines. He published no books of his own,
but he evidently had a substantial library which was left to his grandson, Joseph
Colston, also a medical man. Colston died in 1675 and it was presumably
some time after this that the library was dispersed. Sir Hans Sloane acquired
most of his holdings of Fenton’s books in 1686, a few later. The Sloane Printed
Books databases currently lists 305 items from Fenton’s library, the majority
on surgery and medicine and almost all in Latin. Fenton’s active engagement
with the books in his library is shown by two extensive commonplace books in
the British Library in which he compiled texts from a range of printed books
and added his comments (Sloane 1719 and Sloane 661).
David Pearson, ‘Illustrations from the Wellcome Library: Joseph Fenton and his
Books’, Medical History 47 (2003) 239–248; Alison Walker, ‘Sir Hans Sloane’s
Printed Books in the British Library’ in Giles Mandelbrote and Barry Taylor, eds,
Libraries within the Library. The Origins of the British Library’s Printed Collections
(2009) pp. 89–97 on pp. 95–97; Sloane Printed Books database www.bl.uk/
catalogues/sloane.
102
JENNER, Edward (1749–1823)
A letter to Charles Henry Parry ... on the influence of artificial
eruptions, in certain diseases incidental to the human body, with an
inquiry respecting the probable advantages to be derived from further
experiments.
London: printed for Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1822.