5. Claudius Galenus, Opera omnia, 5 vols, (Basle, 1538).

Claudius Galenus (better known simply as ‘Galen’) was a Greek-born medic of the Roman Empire of the second century AD. His writings about anatomy and physiology were accepted as fact until the middle of the sixteenth century, and were familiar to medical students as late as the nineteenth century.

This book is one of a five volume set of Galen’s works produced in Basle in 1538. It was removed from the Library at some unknown point before 1995.

It was found by Patrick Gageby in a junk shop in Harold’s Cross, Dublin, in 2012. After purchasing the volume, Mr Gageby noticed the stamp of Marsh’s Library inside the book, and returned it to us. The story of his remarkable find is told by Amanda Bell in The Lost Library Book (Oxford, 2017).