[BAUHIN, caspar (1560-1624)]. Caspari Bauhini Basileensis De hermaphroditorum monstrosorum[que] partuum natura ex theologorum, jureconsultorum, medicorum, philosophorum, & rabbinorum sententià libri duo hactenus non editi : planè philologici, infinitis exemplis illustrati: omnium facultatum studiosis, lectu ut jucundissimi, sic & utilissimi. Oppenheimii : typis Hieronymi Galleri, Aere Johan-Theodori de Bry, 1614.
First edition. Two parts in one. Hardcover. Vellum-bound. Octavo, 8º, (165 x 100 mm.), pp. [36], 572, [4], 573-594, [2], [2] folded leaves of plates. Signatures: ›‹⁸ ²›‹⁸ ³›‹² A-Z⁸ Aa-Oo⁸ Pp⁴. Two blanks ²N⁷-⁸ and errata leaf at end Pp⁴r. Latin text with some words and paragraphs in Greek. Roman letter. Contemporary limp vellum with yapp edges, titles inked to spine. Initial and terminal blanks present. Title and imprint within ornamental border. Capital and decorative initials. Headpieces and tailpieces. Engraved portrait of author verso title. 6 full-page engraved plates by Johann Theodor de Bry (note: plate 4 is left blank as is normal). Folding letterpress table classifying causes of monstrous births and folding plate of men being carried on stretchers at rear. Condition: Fair to good. Collated complete. Binding secure, some rubbing and cracking to edges. Covers soiled with noticeable darkening to spine. Varying degrees of browning and spotting throughout. Worming affecting first 13 leaves, this touching text; some lesser worming in margins at end. Ink stamp to title penetrating through to following leaf. Withdrawn library stamp to front blank - from the Royal Society of Medicine Library. Scarce.
Notes: First edition of an early work on hermaphroditism and monstrous births drawing uncritically on a wide range of medical and non-medical sources, also including discussions of satyrs, incubi and succubi, lycanthropes, etc. Caspar Bauhin (1560-1624) was an acclaimed Swiss botanist and anatomist, born of parents who had fled to Switzerland from France after converting to Protestantism. His extensive work on botany was later developed by Linnaeus. The current book, ‘On the Nature of Unnatural Born Hermaphrodites’, claims to be the first extensive publication on a subject now receiving renewed interest in connection with the question of ‘gender fluidity’. Bauhin draws on Greek and Roman writers as well as the animal kingdom for his thesis and one of the rare copper plate engravings laid in at the back of the book is of “Hermaphrodites Transporting the Injured”, one of the extraordinary illustrations from ‘Brevis Narratio...’ (published by de Bry in 1591) in which the life and behaviour of the early Indians of Florida, America, is described). A further fold-out chart delineates the paternal and maternal factors thought to lead to unnatural births - including animal and demonic ‘conjoining contrary to the laws of nature'. Of the 6 other engraved plates number 4 is left blank, which is usual. Plate 2 shows ‘Hermaphrodite twins, conjoined at the back, born in Heidelberg in 1486’. [Caillet 846; Krivatsy 940].
