1707 Latin-German dictionary of surgical terms. No U.S. copies.
[Dictionary] / [Surgery] / [Medicine]. Johann Philipp Roth. Lexicon Chirurgicum seu Nomenclatura Latino-Germanica Ordine Alphabetico posita. Oder Verzeichniß und Erklährung der üblichsten Kunst-Wörter, Welche in Lesung Deutscher Anatomischer und Chirurgischer Bücher vorkommen: Lateinisch und Deutsch, nach Ordung des Alphabeths eingerichtet, Allen Liebhabern, dieser Edlen Kunst, sonderlich aber denen welche der Lateinischen Sprache nicht kundig, zu Nutz und Dienst zusammen getragen und herauß gegeben von Johann Philipp Rothen E. E. Rahts der Stadt Wißmar Chirurgo. Wißmar and Leipzig: Johann Christian Schmid, 1707. 8vo [15.3 x 9.5 cm], 112 pp., with woodcut initials. Bound in contemporary vellum, title stamped on spine, manuscript shelf-marks on spine. Binding well preserved with only minor rubbing. Internally somewhat toned, minor edge wear, the occasional minor stain and paper flaw, a few contemporary annotations.
Very rare (no U.S. copies) first edition of this 1707 Latin-German dictionary of surgical terms (“Lexicon Chirurgicum”) compiled by the surgeon Johann Philipp Roth and dedicated by him to his fellow doctors at the college of Wismar, where he had served for eighteen years.
In his prefatory remarks, Roth states his wish that this “little tract” might serve worthy enthusiasts of the surgical arts who nevertheless are inexpert at Latin. The work is thus an interesting document from an era in which a rising professional class of practitioners of the medical arts (here, surgery) struggled to access the knowledge of an established Latinate body of knowledge (of physicians, anatomists). Reference books of this sort helped to bridge that gap.
The volume includes some 2500 entries, from “Abdomen” (“der Unterbauch”) and “Abortus” (“ein Abgängling, eine unzeitige Geburt”) to “Xiphilis” (“ein Gifftiges Knochen Geschwür”).
OCLC and KVK locate no U.S. copies of this first edition of Roth’s Lexicon Chirurgicum, which is also rare in European census.
*VD18 11595639