Book Notes

Joannes de Vesalia. Facsimile van Joannes de Vesalia's pesttraktaat, Hs. Stresa. Centro Internazionale di Studi Rosminiani, ASIC A2 21. Academia Regia Belgica Medicinae, Series Historica, no. 6. Brussels: Koninklijke Academien voor Geneeskunde van België, 1998. xii + 226 pp. Ill. E30.00 (90-75273-24-X).

The author of this book was the great-grandfather of Andreas Vesalius. His plague treatise was dedicated to "the most victorious" Francesco Sforza of Milan. It is an important source of information, particularly on five outbreaks in Brabant and Flanders between 1428 and 1454. Personal observations enliven the standard descriptions, explanations, and treatments of the epidemic. The text was, to the best of this reviewer's knowledge, never printed; the facsimile reproduces one of only two extant manuscripts; and the production is of excellent quality. The publication date (1998) and the complete (and unconscionable) lack of introduction or commentary are detriments, but the book's very existence should be of interest to Bulletin readers.

Luke Demaitre
University of Virginia, Charlottesville

Leonard D. Rosenman, trans. The Surgery of Roland of Parma.Part I, Roland's Text; Part II, Daremberg's Essay on the Glosses of the Four Salernitan Masters. Translated from Mario Tabanelli, La chirurgia italiana nell'Alto medioevo. Philadelphia: Xlibris, 2002. 206 pp. $28.79 (cloth, 1-4010-6386-1), $18.69 (paperbound, 1-4010-6385-3).

Leonard D. Rosenman, trans. The Chirurgia of Roger Frugard. Translated from Luigi Stroppiana and Dario Spallone, Ruggiero da Parma, Chirurgia. Philadelphia: Xlibris, 2002. 192 pp. $28.89 (cloth, 1-4010-5534-6), $17.84 (paperbound, 1-4010-5533-8).

These two volumes are the first to appear in a series that is planned eventually to offer English translations of all the great Latin surgical authors of the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries: others to be made available are Bruno of Longoburgo, Guglielmo da Saliceto, Lanfranc of Milan, Henri de Mondeville, and Jean Ypermans. The English translations are based primarily on modern Italian ones and consequently sometimes show divergences from the underlying Latin editions, but they are still helpful introductions to the content of medieval surgery as it evolved, and the translator's occasional glosses are also of interest. Medical libraries may receive these volumes as they are printed, without charge, by requesting them from the translator (1400 Geary Boulevard #910, San Francisco, CA 94109).

Michael E. McVaugh
University of North Carolina

George Davey Smith, Daniel Dorling, and Mary Shaw, eds. Poverty, Inequality, and Health in Britain, 1800-2000: A Reader. Bristol, U.K.: Policy Press, 2001. lxxxvii + 373 pp. Ill. $90.00 (cloth, 1-86134-328-0), $28.75 (paperbound, 1-86134-211-X).

This paperback reader contains twenty-eight documents from the late eighteenth century to the end of the twentieth. Essays or excerpts about vital statistics, demography, poverty, nutrition, social insurance, and inequalities of health care and resources, all by leading names in Britain's social history, make this a handy course guide for classes in the history of public health and urban studies. Each of the original sources is introduced by an informative one-page discussion of the author and/or the conditions described in the document.

Reviewed by the editors