HIERONYMI FRACASTORII VERONENSIS OPERA OMNIA, IN UNUM PROXIME POST ILLIUS MORTEM COLLECTA. QUORUM NOMINA SEQUENS PAGINA PLENIUS INDICAT. ACCESSERUNT ANDREAE NAUGERII, PATRICII VENETI, ORATIONES DUAE CARMINAQ. NONNULLA, AMICORUM CURA OB ID NUPER SIMUL IMPRESSA, UT EORUM SCRIPTA, QUI ARCTA INTER SE VIVENTES NECESSITUDINE CONIUNCTI FUERUNT, IN HOMINUM QUOQUE MANUS POST EORUM MORTEM IUNCTA PARTIER PERVENIRENT. CUM ILLUSTRISS. SENATUS VENETI DECRETO
Venetiis: apud Iuntas, MDLV. Colophon: Venetiis apud haeredes Lucaeantonii Iuntae. MDLV.
The first edition of Girolamo Fracastoro's collected works. Quarto (242 x 170 mm). Collation: 6, A-Z4, AA-ZZ4, 3A-3Z4, 3&6, a-h4: 320 ff., foliated (vi) 1-184, 189-285 (I), (I) 2-32. Roman and italic types. Woodcut device on title page; full-page woodcut frame with portraits of Navagero and Fracastoro on the sixth preliminary leaf; numerous woodcut text diagrams; historiated woodcut initials. Occasional early marginal annotations; one small sheet with old manuscript notes loosely laid in at the end.
Fracastoro (1479-1553) is best known for his Syphilis sive morbus gallicus, "the most famous of all medical poems" (Garrison-Morton), but he was a true renaissance polymath. He made a number of advances in medicine, particularly in epidemiology, and also did important work in astronomy and geology; he was in addition a lyric poet of some note. Also included in the volume are two funeral orations by Fracastoro's friend Andrea Navagero (1483-1527), humanist, scholar and diplomat. The volume was edited by Giovanni Battista Ramusio (1485-1557), author of the celebrated Navigationi et viaggi. Fracastoro, Navagero and Ramusio had been friends since their time at university in Padua. Ramusio compiled this collection in memory of his deceased friends; he also erected a monument in their honor at the Porta San Benedetto in Padua, with large bronze medallion portraits of both men by Giovanni Cavino.
Binding: Old vellum over sturdy boards. Leaf 2 clipped at upper margin, with loss of the running-title on the verso; some occasional minor damp-staining, mostly marginal. Binding lightly soiled.
Provenance: Antonio Panzoldi (early purchase inscription at head of title-page) -- John Stockton Hough (1845-1900; Philadelphia doctor, medical historian, bibliographer, and anthropodermic bibliopegist; ink stamp at foot of title-page) -- Warren Stratman-Thomas (1900-1946; renowned research pharmacologist at the University of Wisconsin who worked on syphilis, among other diseases; bookplate on front pastedown).
References: Wellcome I 2396; Durling 1631; Osler 2650; Waller 3168; Cushing F280; Heir of Hippocrates 176; Adams F-817; EDIT 16 CNCE 19612. Item #66689
Price: $3,000.00