Description

4to (232x175 mm). XXXII, 479, [1: errata] pp. and 1 folding map engraved by Giovanni Girolamo Frezza showing the Pontine Marshes. Title page printed in red and black with engraved vignette in the center by Jacob Frey after Giovanni Passari. Initials, head- and tail-pieces engraved by Maximiliam Limpach after Giovanni Domenico Campiglia and Sebastiano Conca. Issue with the addenda on the errata. Contemporary marbled calf, richly gilt spine with lettering piece, colored sprinkled edges (very worn and rubbed, joints and top and bottom of spine broken). Some marginal foxing and staining. A good copy.
First edition. “Lancisi suggested that since malaria disappears after drainage it was due to some sort of poison emanating from marshes and possibly transmitted by mosquitoes. He planned a drainage scheme for marshy regions” (Garrison-Morton). “In this treatise, one of his most important contributions, Lancisi stressed the relationship of stagnant water to diseases, opposed the destruction of forests because of the ecological value of trees and other vegetation, maintained that quinine was to be employed in treating malaria. The book contains an engrave map which shows a drainage scheme for the marshy regions south of Rome” (Heirs of Hippocrates).
Italian Union Catalogue, IT\ICCU\CFIE\000532; Garrison-Morton, 5232; Osler, 3151; Wellcome, III, p. 441; Blake, p. 254; Heirs of Hippocrates, 447.