RUEFF, Jakob

by Jakob Rueff

£4,950 · Offered by Sokol Books

First and only edition of this anonymous translation into English of De conceptu et generatione hominis the celebrated manual of obstetrics. The text is an improved version of Rösslin s Der Swangern Frauen but its importance to the embryologist lies in Rueff s illustrations which show contemporary ideas about mammalian embryology, which corrected many of Rösslin s more fantastic images, and which are copied in this English edition from Jost Amman s fine woodcuts. The book is addressed not only to midwives, pregnant women and women in childbed but also physicians and scholars in general. Little is known of Jacob Rueff s early life except that he was born in 1500. Although primarily known as a physician, surgeon, and lithotomist, he was also a poet and writer of folk songs His medical writings include a little book on tumours, astronomical notes for an almanac, and charts for blood letting. But easily his most important contribution was the publication of a practical handbook on mid-wifery in 1554. Published simultaneously in Latin and German, De conceptu et generatione hominis became the required reading for the midwives of Zurich, for whose instruction and examination Rueff was made responsible. In 1637 an English translation was published in London with the title The expert midwife. .. Rueff s book was for over a century a major source of information for midwives and doctors. As he wrote: my labours I bequeath to all grave modest and discreet women, as also to such as by pro

• Binding: Hardcover

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