De Cataractis. A Roman Account Of Cataracts And Their Removal [Solmentes Press] Esslemont, David, Book Artist Medicine/Health,Private Press

softcover. Number 14 of 30 copies signed and numbered by the book artist. David Esslemont is an artist who makes books by hand. His passion for food and cooking have led to a series of "food" books - visual narratives that include Pizza from Scratch, Taxi Driver Curry and his prize-winning Chili: a Recipe. Esslemont was born in England in 1953 and studied Fine Art (painting) at the Central School of Art and Design in London (now The University of the Arts). He was Artistic Director of the University of Wales Gregynog Press from 1985-97 and has won many book design awards including the Felice Feliciano International Award for Book Design in 1991. His work can be found in both private and public collections worldwide, (his archive to 2005 is held at the University of Iowa.) Esslemont writes about this striking book: "Following recent cataract surgery I now see a brighter, sharper world with great clarity. Curiosity led me to the medical treatise De Medicina, written around 30 AD by Aurelius Cornelius Celsus. Thought to be part of a larger encyclopedia it includes a chapter on the description and treatment of cataracts: ‘De Cataractis.' I am pleased to present three pages from a fifteenth-century copy of De Medicina in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, together with a Latin transcript and an English translation. The woodcuts are from Margarita Philosophica, by Reisch in 1503. I hope the curious will find Celsus's description an interesting read and enjoy lifting the veils of Gampi paper to reveal the effect of phacoemulsification with intraoculaur lens Model DCB00 implantation." Lifting the Gampi paper veils in fact reveals the stunning images in bright colors of the digital flowers Gazania and Flowerscope, taken from Esslemont's previous work Florilegium Solmentes. Inkjet printed with the Centaur MT typeface on Moab Entrada paper interleaved with Kitakata Gampi and sewn Colorplan with blue Lokta Wrappers. In fine condition. Measures 9.75 x 14.75 inches. Unpaginated [about 10 pages] PRI/041524.