KIRCHER, Athanasius (1601-1680). Scrutinium physico-medicum, contagiosae luis, quae pestis dicitur, Rome: Mascardi, 1658, small 4° (230 x 165mm.), FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY, woodcut typographical ornaments, with final errata leaf (moderate browning and spotting), contemporary vellum, spine lettered in manuscript. [GM 5118: "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 diseases"; Heirs of Hippocrates 308; Krivatsy 6405; Lilly p. 71; Norman 1217; Waller 5295; Wellcome III, p. 395]