Early treatise on sleepwalking, or somnambulism: 1 U.S. copy.

[Sleepwalking] / [Somnambulism] / Johannes Jacobus Steffanius. Dissertatio medica inauguralis de somnambulis quam… Basileae: Typis Iacobi Bertschii 1701, 4to [18.1 x 14.2 cm], [10] ff., with woodcut initial. Bound in later decorated wrappers, manuscript title label laid to spine. Minor rubbing and edge wear to wrappers. Manuscript numeration on title page suggesting the piece once formed part of a Sammelband, minor edge toning.
 
 
Rare (1 U.S. copy: Harvard) first and only edition of this early (1701) work on somnambulism or sleepwalking by the Basel medical student Johann Jacob Steffan (1681-1758). Sleepwalking was not investigated seriously by medical/scientific writers until the research of Karl Ludwig von Reichenbach (1788-1869) in the nineteenth century. 
 
Premodern and early modern musings on somnambulism invariably linked the phenomenon with dreams, magic, or unexplained connections with other times or places. (Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene [Act V, Scene 1] is, of course, among the most famous passages in English literature.)
 
Steffan discusses etymology (‘noctambulism’ is an alternate term), ancient sources (e.g., Galen, Lucretius), characteristics, mechanisms (e.g., animal spirits), causes and cures (he includes a recipe). Steffan is also aware of the handful of early modern medical works on the subject (e.g., Jacob Horst’s 1596 De noctambulonum natura), which he cites. A few especially striking anecdotes are included (e.g., Paracelsus).
 
 
OCLC and KVK locate one U.S. example (Harvard).
 
*Husner, Verzeichnis bas. med. Univ. Schriften, no. 1277; Graesse, Bibliotheca Magica et Pneumatica, p. 45.