Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 142

ALESSANDRO BENEDETTI (ca. 1450-1512) De observatione in pestilentia. Per Joannem [et] Gregorium de Gregoriis 1493 [56] pp. (the last leaf blank). 20.4 cm.

Benedetti received his medical degree at Padua in 1475 and spent the next sixteen years in private practice in southern Greece and Crete. He returned to teach at Padua in the early 1490s and then was absent for five years beginning in 1495 when he served as surgeon general of the Venetian army. Benedetti opens the present work with a letter to the Venetian senator Giacomo Contarini (fl. 1500), who had the book published. In the treatise he discusses all aspects of the plague and also includes official measures for its prevention that were instituted in Venice. The book is largely based on Benedetti's own experiences and is surprisingly modern in its outlook.

Cited references: GKW 864; Goff A 390; Hain 807; Klebs 172.1; Waller 8; Wellcome 199

Gift of John Martin, M.D.