Sales catalogue 582: Maggs Bros

Date:
1933
Reference:
WA/HMM/CM/Sal/13/126
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sales catalogue 582: Maggs Bros. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    36/274 (page 28)
    Tue First Datep Book on SypHILIs. 1496 a.D. [52] GRUENPECK (Joseph). De pestilentiali scorra, sive Mala de Franzos, originem remediaque ejusdem continens. Gothic Letter. 4to. Levant morocco, g. e. | Leipzig, Gregorius Béttiger, after 18 Oct., 1496. | (SEE ILLUSTRATION BELOW). £150 Hain *8093. Sudhoff, Erstlinge der Syphilisliteratur, pp. 14 and following. The dedicatory epistle is dated “xv. kal. Novembris. Anno. 1496.” Gruenpeck’s work is the first dated Book on Syphilis, which may (according to Sudhoff) has been preceded only by Schelling’s undated work Consilium in pustulas. According to Sudhoff, the book we are offering for sale appeared in print a few weeks after the First Edition (in German), which appeared in the autumn of 1496 in Augsburg. Tus Latin EpITION Is OF GREATER IMPORTANCE THAN THE GERMAN EDITION, BECAUSE IT CONTAINS AN INTRODUCTION TO THE MEDICAL TREATMENT OR CURE OF SYPHILIS. This Leipzig edition further contains an additiona! 10-line poem entitled Querimonia mentagrict. The whole book ‘is really a treatise.on Sebastian Brant’s poem (which appeared in October 1496, as a broadside, and of which only two copies are known), dedicated to Johannes Reuchlin, Eulogium de pestilentiali scorra sive mala de Franzos. This long poem is given here in full by the author, and Gruenpeck adds his own ideas on the subject. Following Brant, Gruenpeck explains the sudden epidemic appearance of syphilis as the consequence of the conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars in the sign of the Scorpion. Gruen- peck then gives general directions for the avoidance and cure of the disease, and, in this Latin edition only, “ specific remedies,” such as the mercurial ointment. HarRISSE DID NOT KNOW THIS VERY RARE BOOK, WHICH IS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE IN THE CONTROVERSY AS TO THE AMERICAN ORIGIN OF THE DISEASE, WHICH MANY BELIEVE WAS FIRST CONTRACTED BY THE SAILORS OF COLUMBUS IN AMERICA FROM THE NATIVE INDIANS AND BROUGHT BACK TO EuROPE BY THEM TO BARCELONA, WHENCE IT SPREAD ALL OVER EuROPE. G Tractatue & peftilentials Score (are iialate Sransos_ Ariginem Aemediags cits(ocm continene.copilatusa venes vabilt vive Hagifiro Sofeh Grunpeck vx Sneckhanfens. wel carming, quedam cbaftians Srant verin(gs tris profe(forie, See No. 52. [ 28 ]