Bernardino Genga Manuscript Teaching Treatises (Parts III–IV): On Ulcers; On Bones and Ligaments. Rome, Late 17th Century
An important manuscript transmission of surgical teaching in late seventeenth-century Rome illustrating the pedagogical dissemination of Bernardino Genga’s anatomical and clinical methods. Bernardino Genga was Chieft Surgeon and Professor of Anatomy and Surgery at the Archbiship of Santo Spirito in Rome. He was a leading Roman anatomist and surgeon of late 17th century Rome.
Two contemporaneous manuscript volumes comprising Parts III and likely IV of a larger instructional compilation associated with the teachings of Genga.
The third part, devoted to ulcers, opens with a formal title page attributing the text to Genga and identifying the copyist as Giuseppe Orsini. The manuscript appears to have been prepared for use as a medical textbook by a student within Genga’s Roman circle. The fourth part concerns bones and ligaments. Both volumes were acquired together and function as self-contained sections though they formed part of a broader instructional corpus that circulated in manuscript form.
This teaching compilation is known to have circulated in manuscript among medical students in Rome and a few copies survive in Italian institutional libraries.
The ulcer volume contains a hand-drawn heraldic device, possibly connected to a branch of the Orsini family, though this attribution remains unconfirmed.
Condition: Contemporary leather bindings, heavily worn and dry, with surface abrasion and age-related deterioration to the boards. Partial marbled endpapers present on the pastedowns; both front and rear free marbled endpapers are lacking. Foxing and toning throughout consistent with age. Likely Part IV; the second volume lacks a title page, though it is unclear whether one was ever present. Last leaf of volume three loosely laid in. Overall a structurally sound manuscript with wear commensurate to period use.