Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 102

GUILIELMUS VARIGNANA (ca. 1270-1339) Secreta sublimia ad varios curandos morbos verissimis autoritatibus illustrata additionibus nonnullis flosculis. Impressum per Jo. de Cambrey 1522] [iv] lvi (misnumbered xli) ll. 20 cm.

Professor of medicine at the University of Bologna, Varignana was one of the most important members of a well-known Jewish family of Bologna physicians. His sons, Pietro and Matteo, were also teachers at the University of Bologna, following in the footsteps of their father. Fielding H. Garrison notes that Guilielmus' father, Bartolomeo, conducted the first recorded postmortem examination on a case of suspected poisoning at Bologna in 1302. This rare book is divided into five sermones or sections: the first contains nineteen tracts on pathology, the second deals with fevers, the third with abscesses and wounds, the fourth with toxicology, and the fifth discusses leprosy, plague, and various skin diseases.

Cited references: Durling 2199; Wellcome 6494 (1519 ed.)

Gift of John Martin, M.D.