Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 132

MARSILIO FICINO (1433-1499) Tractatus singularis . . . de epidemiae morbo, ex Italico in Latinum versus. In sigismundi Grimm & Marci Vuyrsung officina excusoria 1518] [58] pp. 20.5 cm.

Ficino, leading thinker and head of the Neoplatonic Academy founded by Cosimo de'Medici in 1462 at Florence, is probably the most important representative of humanism in later fifteenth-century Italy. He was born in Figlione, near Florence, the son of Diotifeci d'Agnolo di Giusto Ficino who was physician to Cosimo de'Medici. After being trained in literature, music, and the Latin language, he studied the language, philosophy, and medicine of the Greeks. Commissions from the de'Medici family enabled him to become the leading proponent of Neoplatonic thought and also made it possible for him to make the first complete translation of Plato's works into Latin. His translation of Plato was a best seller by fifteenth century standards and remained in general use until the eighteenth century. His literary output was considerable and included, in addition to Plato, translations of other ancient philosophers and numerous original treatises in which he sought to harmonize Platonism with the tenets of Christianity. He carried on an enormous correspondence with individuals throughout Europe and this helped insure that his ideas were widely disseminated. Ficino was a physician as well as a philosopher, and the present work is one of his earliest books devoted entirely to medicine. First published in Italian at Florence in 1481, this edition was translated into Latin by Girolamo Ricci (fl. ca. 1470). In this treatise on the plague, Ficino discusses its causes, diagnosis, and signs and he concentrates on the various therapies that were then employed to effect its cure. The title page of this copy contains a well-executed woodcut variously ascribed to Hans Weiditz or Hans Burgkmair. The woodcut depicts a sickroom scene with the physician visiting the patient.

Cited references: Durling 1536; Waller 3029; Wellcome 2263

Gift of John Martin, M.D.