Details
FRACASTORO, Girolamo (1478-1553). De sympathia et antipathia rerum liber unus. De contagione et contagiosis morbis et curatione libri iii. Venice: Heirs of Lucantonio Giunta, 1546.
4o (211 x 156 mm). Collation: *4 A-V4. 84 leaves (final leaf blank), foliated. Italic type. Woodcut printer's device on title-page and at end, woodcut arms of Cardinal Alexandro Farnesio on *2r, numerous woodcut initials. (some minor pale dampstaining affecting a few gatherings.) Modern vellum, leather ties. Provenance: Hieronimus Moralinus (signature on title-page over earlier signature); Gast. Lovat. (small stamp on title); indecipherable ink stamp on title.
RARE FIRST EDITION OF "THE FOUNDATION OF ALL MODERN VIEWS ON THE NATURE OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES" (Heirs of Hippocrates). Perhaps less known than his poem, Syphilis, De sympathia is Fracastoro's important contribution to science, establishing him as the founder of modern epidemiology. "In it he clearly describes numerous contagious diseases, with chapters of principal interest, such as that on phthisis, whose contagion and affinity for the lungs he affirms. In the work's most significant part Fracastoro illustrates the three means by which contagion can be spread: by simple contact (as in scabies and leprosy); by fomities, corresponding to carriers (clothing, sheets); and at a distance, without direct contact or carriers (as in plague, smallpox, and the like" (DSB). Garrison-Morton describe the work as "a landmark in the development of our knowledge of infectious disease."
Adams F-821; BM/STC Italian p. 275; Cushing F275; Heirs of Hippocrates 101; Garrison-Morton 2528; NLM/Durling 1636; Osler 2652; Waller 3163; Wellcome 2393; Norman 827.
4o (211 x 156 mm). Collation: *4 A-V4. 84 leaves (final leaf blank), foliated. Italic type. Woodcut printer's device on title-page and at end, woodcut arms of Cardinal Alexandro Farnesio on *2r, numerous woodcut initials. (some minor pale dampstaining affecting a few gatherings.) Modern vellum, leather ties. Provenance: Hieronimus Moralinus (signature on title-page over earlier signature); Gast. Lovat. (small stamp on title); indecipherable ink stamp on title.
RARE FIRST EDITION OF "THE FOUNDATION OF ALL MODERN VIEWS ON THE NATURE OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES" (Heirs of Hippocrates). Perhaps less known than his poem, Syphilis, De sympathia is Fracastoro's important contribution to science, establishing him as the founder of modern epidemiology. "In it he clearly describes numerous contagious diseases, with chapters of principal interest, such as that on phthisis, whose contagion and affinity for the lungs he affirms. In the work's most significant part Fracastoro illustrates the three means by which contagion can be spread: by simple contact (as in scabies and leprosy); by fomities, corresponding to carriers (clothing, sheets); and at a distance, without direct contact or carriers (as in plague, smallpox, and the like" (DSB). Garrison-Morton describe the work as "a landmark in the development of our knowledge of infectious disease."
Adams F-821; BM/STC Italian p. 275; Cushing F275; Heirs of Hippocrates 101; Garrison-Morton 2528; NLM/Durling 1636; Osler 2652; Waller 3163; Wellcome 2393; Norman 827.