Description

4to. (36) pp. Modern marbled boards. Very rare treatise: a report from the dean and medical faculty to the magistrate of Vienna, stating that they had inspected the city's pharmacies by order of the government, since "astrology" had predicted a plague epidemic for this year. Their evaluation is followed by a discussion of the nature of the plague, its causes (including eclipses and comets), and methods to prevent and to cure the disease (cf. Denis). - Possible authors are Crato von Krafftheim (1519-85) and Franz Emrich (1496-1560). Crato had developed an "Electuarium salutis Cratonis" against the plague, a popular mixture of theriac, mithridate, terra sigillata, bolus armenus, bezoar, and other remedies. That the use of "Thyriackh" is discouraged (fol. E2v) reinforces the case for Emrich's authorship: after the university reforms of 1537 he was the standard bearer of the modern hippocratic-galenic school of medicine, which disapproved of the previously favoured Arabic authorities. Indeed, the chapter on food and drink begins with a praise of Galen. In 1554 he published, under his own name, a treatise on plague prevention entitled "Ratschlag zu Verhüetung pestilentzischer Ansuechung". - Some browning and fingerstaining; trimmed rather closely in some places. - VD 16, ZV 28156. BNHCat W 177. Denis, p. 398, no. 416. Lesky 710. Not in Durling, Adams, or BM-STC German.