The English translation of this long title is as follows: Discourses of Pietro Paolo Magni of Piacenza on How to Bleed, Attach Leeches and Cups, Perform Massages and Blistering to the Human Body. The central text is flanked by a bearded physician on the left and a younger barber-surgeon on the right. The physician displays his professional credentials as a result of a university education by carrying a large book under one arm and holding a urine flask, which, for a sixteenth-century reader, symbolized the prestigious expertise of the professional physician. Opposite him, the barber-surgeon carries a portioned box as the attribute of his trade. Probably, this box is supposed to contain a selection of medicines, alluding to the activities of the twin doctor patrons of barbers’ guilds, saints Cosmas and Damian, who were sent to martyrdom after being caught collecting herbs for medicines. Actually, the allusion to these two saints is obvious in the title page of the first edition, where the figures of the physician and the barber-surgeon appear with halos.
Pietro Paolo Magni
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Discorsi di Pietro Paolo Magni Piacentino sopra il modo di sanguinare, attaccar le sanguisughe, & le ventose far le fregagioni & vessicatorii a corpi humani Rome: Bartholomeo Bonfadino, nel Pellegrino, 1586 The Le Roy Crummer Collection