BULLEIN, William.
[Bulleins Bullwarke of Defe[n]ce against all Sicknes, Sornes, and Woundes, that dooe daily assaulte Mankind … Gathered and practiced fro[m] the moste worthie learned, both old and newe: to the great Comforte of Mankind … ended this Marche, anno salutis.
First edition, very scarce, of an important work of medical humanism written in prison by William Bullein (c. 1515–1576), this copy imperfect (though with minimal loss to the main text) but heavily annotated in a near-contemporary hand. Bullein and Sir Thomas Smith were ‘the most accomplished dialogue-writers of their generation’, and Bullein’s work, though long-neglected, deserves fuller appreciation. He was the only writer of medical works in English in the sixteenth century to employ the dialogue form, allowing the physician as counsellor to engage in ‘political digression and autobiographical anecdote’ alongside the medical content (Withington).