Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 164.5

PIEMONTESE ALESSIO (b. ca. 1471) Secreti del Reverendo Donno Alessio Piemontese : Nouamente ristampati, con la givnta del settimo libro. Apresso Vincenzo Lucchino 1559 [16], 151 leaves. 16 cm.

Author also known as Alexis of Piedmon. Divided into seven parts, this work contains a fascinating assortment of “secrets” relating to health, beauty, household tasks, and husbandry. The book gives remedies, for example, for stomach disorders, seasickness, toothaches, chapped lips, and bee stings; it contains directions for hair dyes and hair restorers, for dental hygiene, for removing facial spots, and for transforming the aging face into that of a young woman. Men are not forgotten, for there are instructions for tuning the beard from white to black. Among many other things, the book tells how to kill lice, solder, gild, bleach, make varnish, and keep flies off horses. Some of the recipes border on the suspicious or unlikely: how to make hens lay eggs throughout the molting season, how to prevent dogs from barking, and how to burn a candle of ice; other cross the line into the horrifying, like the “oil of red dog,” credited with several miraculous cures, that requires boiling an unfortunate canine in oil until it disintegrates and then adding scorpions, worms, and herbs. But the volume as a whole forms a very useful compendium of household wisdom and personal health care, and, as such, it provides remarkable insights into 16th century European social conditions, private life home economics, medical knowledge and agriculture. The work appeared first in Italian, in 1555 or 1556, and enjoyed immediate and widespread popularity. Some commentators have claimed that Alexis of Piedmon is a pseudonym for Girolamo Ruscelli (d. 1566), but Ferguson disputed this and set forth his detailed arguments against the claim in a 1930 paper published in the “Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine” (v.24). Copies of 16th c. printings of this work can be found, but most copies of early editions have been destroyed through hard use or are now to be found in deplorable condition.

John Martin M.D. Endowment