Kircher (Athanasius) Naturliche und medicinalische Durchgrundung der laidigen ansteckenden Sucht und so genanten Pestilentz, first German edition, slightly browned, light water-stain in the upper outer corner towards the end of the volume, otherwise a good, genuine copy, contemporary calf, metal clasps preserved, [Merrill 15; Krivatsy 6408; Waller 5294; Garrison-Morton 5118], 8vo, Augsburg, Jacob Koppmayer, 1680. ⁂ Very rare first edition in German of the Scrutinium contagiosae luis, quae pestis dicitur, a true milestone in the history of epidemiology which was first printed in Rome in 1658. During the plague epidemic that struck Rome between June 1656 and August 1657 causing 15,000 casualties, Kircher helped the physicians in their research on the cause of the disease and, using the microscope for the first time in medicine, he formulated the doctrine of the "contagium vivum" (living contagion). According to James Joseph Walsh the Scrutinium is "one of the classics which represent a landmark in knowledge for all time. It merits a place beside such books as Harvey's Circulation of the Blood or even Vesalius' De fabrica" (The Popes and Science: the History of the Papal relations to science during the middle ages and down to our own time, New York, 1913, p. 133). "Kircher was probably the first to employ the microscope in investigating the cause of disease... he was the first to state explicitly the theory of contagion by animalculae as the cause of infectious disease" Garrison-Morton.
Kircher (Athanasius) Naturliche und medicinalische Durchgrundung der laidigen ansteckenden Sucht und so genanten Pestilentz, first German edition, slightly browned, light water-stain in the upper outer corner towards the end of the volume, otherwise a good, genuine copy, contemporary calf, metal clasps preserved, [Merrill 15; Krivatsy 6408; Waller 5294; Garrison-Morton 5118], 8vo, Augsburg, Jacob Koppmayer, 1680. ⁂ Very rare first edition in German of the Scrutinium contagiosae luis, quae pestis dicitur, a true milestone in the history of epidemiology which was first printed in Rome in 1658. During the plague epidemic that struck Rome between June 1656 and August 1657 causing 15,000 casualties, Kircher helped the physicians in their research on the cause of the disease and, using the microscope for the first time in medicine, he formulated the doctrine of the "contagium vivum" (living contagion). According to James Joseph Walsh the Scrutinium is "one of the classics which represent a landmark in knowledge for all time. It merits a place beside such books as Harvey's Circulation of the Blood or even Vesalius' De fabrica" (The Popes and Science: the History of the Papal relations to science during the middle ages and down to our own time, New York, 1913, p. 133). "Kircher was probably the first to employ the microscope in investigating the cause of disease... he was the first to state explicitly the theory of contagion by animalculae as the cause of infectious disease" Garrison-Morton.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
