Beschreibung:

FRACASTORO, Girolamo (c.1478-1553). Syphilis sive morbus gallicus . Verona: [Stefano dei Nicolini da Sabbio and brothers], August 1530.
FRACASTORO, Girolamo (c.1478-1553). Syphilis sive morbus gallicus . Verona: [Stefano dei Nicolini da Sabbio and brothers], August 1530. 4° (202 x 143 mm). Italic type, initial spaces with guide letters, with the blanks e5-7. (Without the final blank e8, lightly spotted, margins lightly waterstained.) Later vellum. Provenance: faint remnants of a stamp remover from title – removed inscription on e7. FIRST EDITION of ‘the most famous of all medical poems’ (Garrison and Morton). Fracastoro dedicated this mock-heroic poem to his patron, Cardinal Pietro Bembo, by whom it was esteemed and praised (although he asserted that some passages be eliminated). 'The poem, drafted in Latin hexameter (about 1,300 verses) of exquisite beauty, occupies a prominent place in the literature of the times and represents a magnificent paradigm of formal sixteenth-century virtuosity in refined Latin of a didactic quality reminiscent of Vergil's Georgics' (DSB). The work brought Fracastoro much fame, and established the universal name of the sickness, which derives from the hero of the treatise, the unfortunate shepherd Sifilo. 'Fracastoro, through the course of the poem, speculates on the origin of the disease, treats of its causes and manifestations, and suggests remedies, especially mercury. There are several references to America, mentioning the curative powers of guaiacum wood and the theory of the American origin of syphilis, which Fracastoro rejects' ( Heirs ). Adams F-826; BM STC Italian , p. 275; Cushing F284; Durling 1641; Garrison and Morton 2364; Heirs 98; Norman 826; Osler 4817; Waller 3173; Wellcome 2391