An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2024 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

16062 entries, 14145 authors and 1947 subjects. Updated: December 23, 2024

GERARD OF CREMONA, (Gerardus Cremonensis)

4 entries
  • 43

Canon medicinae [Latin] (Lib I-V) (Tr: Gerardus Cremonensis) (5 vols.)

Milan: Philippus de Lavagnia, [for Johannes Antonius & Blasius de Terzago], 1473.

Avicenna is said to have written more than 100 books, most of which have perished. He wrote on the etiology of epilepsy and described diabetes, noticing the sweetish taste of the urine. His Canon is one of the most famous medical texts ever written; a complete exposition of Galenism. Neuburger says: “It stands for the epitome of all precedent development, the final codification of all Graeco-Arabic medicine”. It dominated the medical schools of Europe and Asia for five centuries. The above is a Latin translation by Gerard of Cremona.  ISTC no. ia01417500ISTC no.  ia01417700 describes another printing of the same translation issued in Strassburg by Adolf Rusch (the R printer), also in 1473. Digital facsimiles of all five volumes of that edition are available from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek; volume 1 at this link.



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Iran (Persia), MEDIEVAL MEDICINE , MEDIEVAL MEDICINE › Medieval Persian Islamic Medicine, Metabolism & Metabolic Disorders › Diabetes
  • 6495.7

Maimonides: Aphorismi secundum doctrinam Galeni. Add: Mesue: Aphorismi. Rhasis: De secretis in medicina. Hippocrates: Capsula eburnea.

Venice: Franciscus (Plato) de Benedictis, for Benedictus Hectoris, 1489.

The most popular and influential medical work by Maimonides, the most famous of early Jewish physician/philosophers. This is a collection of about 1500 aphorisms derived from Galen, and divided into 24 treatises. In the 25th and final treatise Maimonides discusses Galen’s teleological ideas from the Biblical standpoint. See also No. 53. The collection also includes translations of works by Mesue and Hippocrates by Gerard of Cremona, and a translation of Rhazes by Aegidius Lusitanus (Aegidius de Scalabis).  ISTC no. im00077000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.



Subjects: Jews and Medicine, MEDIEVAL MEDICINE , MEDIEVAL MEDICINE › Medieval Jewish Medicine
  • 8438

Galeni Opera. Edited by Diomedes Bonardus. Translated from the Greek by Nicolaus de Regio, Marcus Toletanus, Petrus de Abano, Accursius Pistoriensis, Guilelmus de Moerbeka, Burgundio of Pisa, Gerardus Cremonensis and Constantinus Africanus. With poem to the author of Johannes Pyrrhus Pincius. 2 vols.

Venice: Philippus Pincius, 1490.

The first printed edition of Galen's writings pulled together texts from numerous translators. ISTC No. ig00037000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.



Subjects: ANCIENT MEDICINE › Roman Empire, Collected Works: Opera Omnia
  • 3666.82

Chirurgia cum formis instrumentorum (Tr: Gerardus Cremonensis). IN: Guy de Chauliac: Chirurgia parva. Add: Albulcasis: Chirurgia cum formis instrumentorum. Jesus filius Hali: De oculis (Tr: Dominicus Marrochinus). Canamusali de Baldach: De oculis.

Venice: Bonetus Locatellus, 15001501.

The surgical section of Albucasis’s Altasrif, the first rational, complete and illustrated treatise on surgery and surgical instruments. The author was an  Arab Muslim physician and surgeon who lived in Al-Andalus. During the Middle Ages this was the leading textbook on surgery until it was superseded by Saliceto. The work was first published in print in the Latin translation by Gerard of Cremona, in this collective edition, in which Guy de Chauliac's surgery was the lead title. Besides its significance in general surgery and for the history of surgical instruments, Albucasis's work was “of great importance for the development of practical dentistry” (Hoffmann-Axthelm). Chapter 28 discusses excision of epulis. Chapter 29 deals with calculus. Albucasis understood that calculus on the teeth is a major cause of periodontal disease and gave explicit instructions for scaling the teeth, describing the instruments which he invented for this purpose. Chapter 30 covers tooth extraction, and Chapter 33 contains one of the earliest discussions of tooth prostheses, and describes some oral surgery procedures. The work contains some of the earliest illustrations of dental instruments. See No. 5550.  

Note that Albucasis's surgery, a work of significant practical value, was the last, or one of the last, of the medieval classics of surgery to be printed. ISTC no. ig00564000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.  

A superbly illustrated 14th century MS of Albucasis was reproduced in full color facsimile as Codex Vindobonensis Series Nova 2641, Graz, Akademische Druck, 1979.



Subjects: DENTISTRY › Dental Instruments & Apparatus, DENTISTRY › Oral Surgery, DENTISTRY › Periodontics, DENTISTRY › Prosthodontics, INSTRUMENTS & TECHNOLOGIES › Dental Instruments, INSTRUMENTS & TECHNOLOGIES › Surgical Instruments, ISLAMIC OR ARAB MEDICINE, MEDIEVAL MEDICINE , MEDIEVAL MEDICINE › France, MEDIEVAL MEDICINE › Medieval Islamic or Arab Medicine, OPHTHALMOLOGY , SURGERY: General