“THE LARGEST AND MOST SPECTACULAR OF THE EARLY CLASSICS OF DERMATOLOGY”: WITH REMARKABLE COLOR LITHOGRAPHS

[ALIBERT, Jean Louis Marc. Description des Maladies de la Peau Observées à l’Hôpital Saint Louis. Paris: Barrois, 1806.]. Large folio (14 by 21 inches), contemporary marbled boards rebacked and recornered, retaining original marbled endpapers.    $4200.

First edition of the plate volume for Alibert’s dermatological landmark, with 53 of the original 56 lithographs, and six additional plates from other works.

“One of the most interesting figures in the history of dermatology… [his] clinic at the Hôpital St. Louis was for years the world’s center for this specialty. To him is owed the first description of ‘Aleppo button,’ of mycosis fungoides, and of keloids” (Castiglioni, 737). “Alibert prided himself upon the fact that he was the first to employ the painter’s palette and the burin in the delineation of skin diseases” (Garrison, 417-18). Alibert’s Description is “the largest and most spectacular of the early classics of dermatology, with illustrations unsurpassed for their quality of execution… the first on the subject in a French book” (Garrison & Morton 3986). Originally published in 12 parts from 1806-14, the work is rarely found complete today; this volume contains 53 of the 56 color lithographs by Moreau Valvile and Fresca, heightened by hand. Plate volume only. The last six plates are similarly executed lithographs by Choubard, from other dermatological works.

Scattered light foxing. A near-fine copy. Scarce.