Urbino, Bartelomaeus Carusium, 1589. 4to (21.8 x 15.9 cm). Title page with pictorial border showing snakes, birds, fish, and moths; verso with large, engraved coat-of-arms; [xxix], 151 pp.; five engraved plates. Contemporary full vellum. With handwritten title, in a contemporary hand, on the spine.

The first work entirely and exclusively dealing with snakes and snake venom. Written by the Italian physician and naturalist Baldo Angelo Abati (Latin: Abbatius) (1530-ca. 1595). The full title is Baldi Angeli Abbatii medici physici eugubini de admirabili viperæ natura, et de mirificis ejusdem facultatibus liber: ad serenissimum franciscum mariam ii, urbini ducen vi. "The book is divided into 32 chapters on such subjects as the etymology of the word 'viper'; which part of the snake is poisonous and which part has antidotal properties ... the best time of year to find vipers and how they could be kept; copulation and pregnancy; and cure of viper bites" Adler, p. 16. The first, unnumbered plate shows snakes and snake handlers in circular emblems; the following four plates (numbered I-IIII) show vipers and their external and internal anatomy. All plates are printed together with the text (on the verso of the index, and on pp. 59, 62, 65 and 66), and not on separate leaves. This is the rare first edition. Several reprints were issued until 1660. Nissen lists 1591 (Urbino), 1603 (Noribergae) and 1660 (Hagae Com.). According to Adler, Abati's work provided a critical foundation for the work of Francesco Redi who published the first experiments on viper envenomation in 1664. Occasional, mostly marginal annotations and underlining in an old hand throughout. Wear and staining to the boards, otherwise very good. Extremely rare. We found only four auction records in the last 100 years, including only one this century, but incomplete. Nissen ZBI 1; Adler III, pp. 16-17.