Pharmacopoeia Londinensis. Or, the New London Dispensatory.

£750 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

the major medical book of the 17th-century, translated for the general public The sixth edition of William Salmon's popular English translation of this important medical text, originally published by the Royal College of Physicians in Latin in 1618. In a handsome, 19th-century vellum binding. Backed by a Royal Proclamation of King James I, the Pharmacopoeia Londinensis was 'an officially sanctioned list of all known medical drugs, their effects and directions on their use. No one was allowed to concoct any medicine or sell any substance if it did not appear in the Pharmacopoeia Londinensis'. This publication centralised English medical power within the College, clawing back some of that lost when the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries was created the year before. ('A Weapon Dressed as a Book', Royal College of Physicians website). The first English translation, by Nicholas Culpeper, appeared in 1649, and Salmon's translation, with additional commentary and material on chemical theories of medicine, was first published in 1678. Proving popular with the general public, it went through seven editions up to 1716. The book's practical, domestic focus is certainly reflected in the well-used nature of this copy. The translator William Salmon (1644-1713) was an interesting figure operating at the intersection of local, domestic medicine and the professionalised world of gentlemen physicians. Born in 1644, he was apprenticed to a 'mountebank' or snake-oil salesman. By 1641 he had 'est

• Binding: Hardcover

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