Malfi (Tiberio) Il barbiere. Libri tre ne'quali si ragiona dell'eccellenza dell'arte e de' suoi precetti, first edition, engraved architectural title, engraved author portrait to verso 2[cross]4, 20 engraved illustrations only (of 21; 1 being supplied in neat manuscript facsimile) and one of which with another engraving tipped-in above by later tape (at N1 verso, the illustration being a duplicate of M4 verso) some whole page, woodcut diagrams and initials, some ms. notes to Aa5 f. verso, lacking final f. (?blank), 8ff. supplied in neat manuscript facsimile ([cross]1-4, H1, H4, X2-3, including whole two pen and ink illustrations), probably 19th century, a blank f. of same paper bound following author's portrait, title with small paper repairs at edges, and scattered elsewhere small marginal paper repairs generally without loss to text or illustration, small defect C2 lower margin with loss of a few letters, some spotting and damp-staining, later boards (possibly 19th century) loose, rubbed, [Wellcome I, 3998], 4to, Naples, Ottavio Beltrano, 1626.

⁂ Rare in commerce: we can trace only two at auction. Showing the various techniques of the highly specialised practice of bloodletting in seventeenth-century Italy, this first edition work is richly illustrated with engraved portraits including famous barber-surgeons throughout history (e.g. Irades Cleopatra’s barber, Oliver Ledaim, barber to King Louis XI of France and Domenico Burchielbo, the celebrated barber-poet of Florence), as well as woodcuts of surgical instruments invented by Malfi, barber tools, tourniquets, vessels and other utensils.