Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 141

NICCOLO SCILLACIO (b. ca. 1450) [Que in hoc libello continentur . . .]. Joannes Andreas de Boscho, Michael and Bernardinus de Garaldis 9 Martii, 1496] 10 ll. 19.1 cm.

Scillacio was born on Sicily at Messina and spent his early youth in Spain. He apparently decided to seek his education as he grew older and, in 1482, went to Pavia where he received his doctorate in philosophy as well and then a teaching position on the faculty in 1486. He attained his medical degree in 1492 and a year later published two treatises on dreams. Earlier, in 1491, he had edited John of Gaddesden's (see No. 104) Rosa anglica practica medicine and in 1494 published a geographical work in which he described Columbus' second voyage to America. In 1495 he accompanied the Archbishop of Milan on a political mission to the Spanish court. In June of that year he had the opportunity to travel to Barcelona where he found an epidemic of syphilis, which he described in a letter to his teacher. Scillacio was able to travel widely in Spain and, in the course of his journeys, discovered a copy of Avicenna's Canon and biography as well as treatises of Averroës. The present book contains excerpts from his larger work--Que in hoc libello continentur--and includes the letter on syphilis as well as the life of Avicenna. The syphilis letter is the first epidemiological report of the disease known to medical historians. In addition to these medical works, portions of his nuptial and doctoral orations are present. Scillacio's larger work is an unusually rare book and there is no copy of it (or of any excerpts) recorded in the United States.

See Related Record(s): 104

Cited references: Hain-Copinger-Reichling 14572; Klebs 929.1

Gift of John Martin, M.D.