MICROCOSMUS HYPOCHONDRIACUS Sive DE MELANCHOLIA HYPOCHONDRIACA TRACTATUS .. Concinnatus a Malachia Geigero, Electoralis Monachiensis .. Medico & Chirurgo ordinario. Hardcover - 1652

Munich: Lucas Straub (first edition)., 1652. Hardcover. Poor. Folding plate of veins and arteries (one only of 6 plates). . Small quarto marbled paper boards, spine re-backed in old leather on 5 cords with 19th century red leather gilt title label laid on. First edition of this important early work on melancholia, neurology and alchemy - [xviii] +524pp +[11]pp index & errata +3 leaves blank. Lacks engraved titlepage (supplied in facsimile) and all but one of 6 plates. Printed Title and following 340pp badly cropped at fore-edge with loss of last letter of each line of title and most of marginal guide notes, remaining pages affected by light marks of previous damp at fore-edge. *Damaged and defective copy of very rare first edition of this important work on melancholia and neurology. Geiger came from a prestigious dynasty of German physicians working in Bavaria & Munich. Melancholia was then generally considered to result from excess black bile, which Galen had earlier described as the culprit in cancer. Geiger's book sets the disease in early-modern scientific context: chapters include essays on medicine, alchemy, natural science, literature, and mythology (FASEB Journal June 2012, Graesse, III, 40).