PARÉ (Ambroise). Five books on surgery. Paris, André Wechel, 1572. In-8, supple vellum with covers, traces of binding (contemporary binding). Extremely rare first edition of this treatise on surgery by Ambroise Paré (1510-1590), the "father and reformer of French surgery". The work, mainly devoted to the treatment of war wounds, was dedicated to King Charles IX. The 1571 edition cited by Hoefer is a bibliographical ghost, as Janet Doe writes: no copy is known to exist. The volume is decorated with a fine woodcut title frame, with a portrait of the author aged 55 on the verso, and 41 woodcuts in the text, several of them full-page. Paré presents entirely new subjects here, which had not been covered in his Ten Books of 1564: 1. bandages, 2. fractures (with 14 woodcuts), 3. dislocations (with 18 woodcuts), 4. venomous bites and stings, 5. drops (with 10 woodcuts). Some of the woodcuts already illustrated the Anatomie universelle of 1561 and the Dix livres, but those on fractures and dislocations appear here for the first time. The last chapter of the book on dislocations, entitled Apologie touchant les playes faites par harquebuzes, is a response to Julien Le Paulmier's criticism of the use of suppuratives in the treatment of wounds advocated by Paré. "The Cinq livres has been called by several serious writers Paré's masterpiece [...]. In it appears the first description of the fracture of the head of the femur. Secondly, it is the first appearance of the whole teaching of bandages, fractures, and dislocations which has come down to us from the ancients, broadened by Paré's own experience. Lastly, we recognize here, as in no other book, the author's genial mode of presenting his material. It is undoubtedly one of his important works" (Janet Doe). An attractive and rare wide-margined copy (165 x 110 mm) bound in contemporary vellum. Ex-libris crossed out on the title of Simon Cosnier. Handwritten annotation dated 1661 on pp. 464-465. Folio y1 (pp. 337-338) has been carefully facsimileed on antique paper, and the main body of the work sewn back into its original binding. Minor spotting and dampening. Doe, Ambroise Paré, n°19 - Brunet, IV, 366.