[Gynaecology/ obstetrics. Jacob Rüff] 't Boeck van de vroet-wyfs

In 't welcke men mach leeren alle heymelijckheden van de vrouwen, en in wat ghestalte de mensche in sijn moeders lichaem ontfanghen, groeyet, en geboren wort. Voorts hoe alderley sieckten, die den kraem-vrouwen lichtelijck over komen, met kostelijcke medecijnen mogen voor-komen en genesen worden. Al t'samen uyt eyghen ervarentheyt van den seer vermaerden Jacob Ruffen, stadts-medecijn tot Zurich, eertijdts in druck uyt-gegeve, en nu ter tyt op een nieu verbetert, en met schoone figueren verciert, Daer by gevoeght is een profijtelijcke leeringe, van het voesteren en handelen van de nieuw-geboren kinderen. Overgeset uyt den Hooogduytsche in onse Nederlandtsche spraecke, door Martin Everaert B. Amsterdam, J.J. Bouman, 1668, (136) p. (paging partly in pages and partly in leaves), with woodcut title illus. of a childbed with mother, child and midwives, 33 woodcut illus. (of which several (nearly) full-page) after Jost Amman (per the edition Frankfurt am Main, Feyerabend, 1580), modern vellum, 4to.

Good copy with minor defects (e.g. occ. waterstaining to margin). BMN I, p. 334. Improved edition of the work of Eucharius Rösslin, very attractively illustrated. The aforementioned German edition from 1580 was an expanded version of "Ein schön lustig Trostbüchlein von den Empfengknussen und Geburten der Menschen", which already appeared in 1554. Hagelin p. 18 and on the 1580 edition: "Jacob Rueff, city physician of Zurich, was responsible for the instruction and examination of the midwives of the canton. He followed the example of Rösslin and in 1554 completed his popular guide for midwives, which next to Rösslin's 'Rosengarten' became the most important obstetrical work of the Renaissance, and with Jost Amman's fine woodcuts it is ranked as one of the most famous illustrated medical books of the sixteenth century."