Syphilis, sive morbus gallicus. - [THE RAREST AND MOST IMPORTANT EDITION OF THE SYPHILIS-POEM]

FRACASTORIUS, HIERONYMUS [GIROLAMO FRACASTORO OF VERONA].

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Roma, Apud Antonium Bladum Asulanum (on colophon), 1531, mense Septembri. 4to. Sown, uncut and unbound. Title-page and a few other leaves with a bit of minor brownspotting" overall a very nice and well-preserved copy of this beautifully printed, extremely scarce work. Two quires with loose leaves. Floriated large initial at beginning. [32] ff. (being title-page, 29 ff. text, 1 f. errata, 1 f. blank). The exceedingly scarce second edition (the "Rome text") of "[t]he most famous of all medical poems" (Garrison & Morton), the poem which gave to the disease syphilis its name, being the most important edition of the work, the first complete edition (with the two lines of the first book printed for the first time - not found in any other contemporary editions of the work), the only authoritative version of the text to appear contemporarily, and by far the rarest edition - with only four known copies at the time of the official bibliography (Baumgartner and Fulton, 1935) (whereas the first edition from the year before, 1530, was known in 30 copies) - our copy also with the final blank leaf (H4), "not preserved in any copy examined" (Baumgartner & Fulton, p. 38)."The edition published at Rome (no. 2) in the following year is a finer piece of printing, AND IT IS EVIDENTLY A MUCH RARER WORK SINCE ONLY FOUR COPIES HAVE BEEN TRACED, WHILE AT LEAST 30 COPIES OF THE VERONA EDITION (i.e. the first edition) ARE KNOWN." (Baumgartner & Fulton, p. 37). Apart from the work itself being of the greatest impact on the history of medicine, giving to Syphilis its name and epitomizing contemporary knowledge of the illness, and the author being one of the most renowned physicians of the Renaissance, being compared in scope and excellence to Leonardo da Vinci, the present work in the present second edition has yet another feature, apart from its utmost scarcity, which contributes to its excellence" it is printed by the excellent Italian printer Antonio Blado, whose works are scarce and very sought after."Textually, as well as typographically, this is the most important edition of Fracastoro's poem, since, unlike those which follow, it bears evidence of having been supervised by Fracastoro himself, the two lines which had been omitted from Bk. I of the Verona edition being here included (verses 1 and 2 on leaf C2b) in exactly the form in which they were written on the vellum copy of the 1530 edition mentioned above (see end of note). Among his other achievements in typography Antonio Blado can claim the distinction of having issued the most beautiful edition of Fracastoro's poem of any of the sixteenth century. The format is larger than that of the Verona edition and the fount of large italic type seems particularly well suited to Fracastoro's even lined verses. As with the other editions of this period the capitals are in Roman throughout" the ornamental capital (Q) at the beginning of Bk. I is particularly well executed. Bks II and II have spaces at the beginning for an illuminated initial.THE BOOKS OF ANTONIO BLADO ARE APPARENTLY AS RARE AS THEY ARE EXCELLENT, AND THEY HAVE LONG BEEN SOUGHT AFTER BY ITALIAN COLLECTORS. Blado was born in 1490 at Asloa in northern Italy. In 1515 Blado settled in Rome where he remained until his death in 1567. He was a bold and original printer, who, as Fumagelli points out, almost invariably undertook new things, never reprinting classics, and only occasionally , as in the case of Fracastoro's poem, reprinting the work of a contemporary. In 1532 he issued the first edition of Machiavelli's "Il Principe", and in 1549 he became official printer to the Papal See." (Baumgartner & Fulton, p. 39)."Girolamo Fracastoro (1484-1553), a Veronese of thick-set, hirsute appearance and jovial mien, who practiced in the Lago di Garda region, was at once a physician, poet, physicist, geologist, astronomer, and pathologist, and shares with Leonardo da Vinci the honour of being the first geologist to see fossil remains in the true light (1.

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• Titolo: Syphilis, sive morbus gallicus. - [THE RAREST AND MOST IMPORTANT EDITION OF THE SYPHILIS-POEM]
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