HORST Jakob De Aureo dente maxillari pueri Silesii.

VD-16, H 5006 & 5015; Poletti, p. 105 ; Weinberger, 68 (only the first portion up to page 156) ; Hirsch-Hübotter, III, 303 ; Waller, 10644 ; Parkinson, 1315 ; see Blake, 2460, and Wellcome, I, 176 (both for the 1596 issue). Not in David.

First edition. The extremely rare 1595 issue.

Jacob Horst (1537–1600) first studied Latin in his hometown of Torgau before enrolling at the University of Wittenberg in 1552 to study philosophy. He continued his education at the University of Frankfurt/Oder, where he studied medicine and graduated in 1562 with a doctorate in medicine. After practising as a doctor, he became a professor of medicine in 1584.

In 1593, in Silesia, eight days before Easter, a little girl discovered a molar in her classmate’s mouth that shone like gold. The news quickly reached the ears of iatrochemical doctors and astrologers, who wondered about the nature of this prodigy: was it real or miraculous? Everyone wanted to examine it, and the child ran from fair to fair to cash in on the opening of her mouth. But it was the credulity of those who attributed the character of an oracle to this gold tooth that made it a real story.

This treatise is divided into two parts, the first of which is one of the earliest treatises devoted to dentistry. Horst attempts to solve the mystery of this gold tooth, which, according to rumour, had grown in the mouth of a seven-year-old child, in the place of the first large molar on the left side of the lower jaw. He attributes this phenomenon to supernatural causes and says that it is a sign heralding the advent of the Golden Age, the last age of this world before the Last Judgement.

In a work published a few years later, Jacob Frank summarised this clinical observation in a six-page text written in the vernacular, under the title, L’histoire merveilleuse d’une dent d’or.

“Chrestofle Molec […], estant en l’âge de sept ans qu’on tient pour année critique, perdit ses dents & en la place d’icelles luy en vint entre autres en la maschoire d’en bas du costé gauche une d’or, de la grandeur, forme & proportion des autres. En fin en l’an 1594, au mois de Septembre je la veis aussi, et l’ayant bien consideree & tastee, je l’esprouvay à la pierre de touche. Tout incontinent que le garçon ouvrit la bouche, je veis reluyre la dent, la maniay, la trouvay ronde, & par haut trenchante ayant quatre pointes, & au milieu un peu creuse comme les grosses dents ont accoustumé d’estre, d’une mesme grandeur ou peu plus grande que les autres & en ordre toute la dernière.  Elle tenoit fort & ferme, la gencive autour vermeille & belle. Je ne me contentay de tout cela, mais feis manger l’enfant, & comme il mangeait le mieux, pour scavoir s’il se servait de ladite dent comme les autres, je trouvay encor la chair tenir à la dent & luy ayant faict laver la bouche avec de l’eau, je touchay la dent de la pierre de touche et trouvay que c’estoit de l’or du Rhin & encor un peu meilleur. J’ay aussi apperceu le garçon estre de chaude & seiche complexion & de fort bon entendement.”

L’histoire de la dent d’or gradually became a philosophical example warning against the artifices used by religions, mainly known through Fontenelle’s (1657-1757) Histoire des oracles (1683). Dental literature took a late interest in this story, even though the creation of what was probably a gold dental crown was a remarkable feat at the end of the 16th century.

The text is followed by one of the first treatises on somnambulism and its causes, first published by the same publisher in 1593.

“Horst hat sich ein unverdientes Andenken in der Geschichte der Medizin durch seine Schrift ‘De aureo dente‘ gesichert” [Horst s’est assuré un souvenir immérité dans l’histoire de la médecine grâce à son ouvrage ‘De aureo dente’]. (Hirsch-Hubotter).

Papier uniformly toned. A very good copy of the rare book.