Dell'anotomia, et dell'infirmita del cavallo di Carlo Ruini senatore bolognese. All'illustriss.mo et Reverendiss.mo Monsignore Cardinale Pietro Aldrobandini

Due parti in un vol. in-folio; 18 cc., 296 pp. – 1 c., 386 pp., 14 cc. (senza la prima e ultima carta bianca); numerose illustrazioni xilografiche nel testo. Legatura ottocentesca in mezza pergamena, tassello in marocchino con titolo e filetti in oro al dorso, tagli dorati. Esemplare proveniente dalla biblioteca Boncompagni (ex libris a timbro stampigliati al titolo). Altro ex libris con monogramma FM. Qualche raro punto di fioritura ma buon esemplare. Rarissima prima edizione di uno dei capisaldi della storia della medicina veterinaria: primo libro completamente dedicato all'anatomia di un animale e prima opera monografica sui cavalli. “Besides being one of the foundation-stones of modern veterinary medicine, it contains a description of the lesser circulation. The admirable woodcuts were inspired by those in Vesalius’s De humani corporis fabrica, 1543” (Garrison-Morton).
“Carlo Ruini’s noted work, Anatomia del Cavallo, appeared two months after his death in 1598 and was a milestone in veterinary publishing, not least for its amazingly well drafted woodcut images of equine anatomy which were clearly very heavily influenced by human anatomical works published in the decades before. The work was published over and over again, and its images and text were often plagiarized […]. The artist of the work is unknown, but rumors circulated that the images were drafted by "an artist from the workshop of Titian," the same undocumented attribution as Andreas Vesalius' De Fabrica (Basel, 1543). This is an indication of the comparison of the two works in the minds of the public in terms of style, fluidity, detail, and importance” (U.S. National Library of Medicine).
Una seconda edizione, anch'essa rara, fu pubblicata l'anno successivo a Venezia da Bindoni. Dibner Heralds of Science 186. Garrison-Morton 285. Durling 3991. Mortimer, Italian 448. Norman 1858. U.S. National Library of Medicine (online records). Mennessier de la Lance II, 465.