FRACASTORO, Girolamo (1478-1553). De sympathia et antipathia rerum, liber unus. De contagione et contagiosis morbis et curatione libri III, Venice: heirs of Luc'Antonio Giunta, April 1546, 4° (205 x 147mm.), FIRST EDITION, italic type, woodcut device on title and verso of colophon leaf, woodcut diagrams and initials (lacking final blank, title restored at inner margin, A1 slightly torn along inner margin, D3v with old ink stains, quire F browned, quire N stained, dampstain to T1), contemporary limp vellum (recased, new endpapers). [Adams F821; Durling 1636; GM 2528: "a landmark in the development of our knowledge of infectious disease. Fracastoro was the first to state the germ theory of infection"]