CECCARELLI, Ippolito, trans.

Very rare edition of this scarce translation into Italian of the Roman pharmacopoeia authorised by the Collegio de Medici, first published 1583, and first translated into Italian in 1612. This was the second ed. to contain the notes of Pietro Castrelli (1574-1667), after 1639, and the ‘new’ material advertised here had appeared in that edition for the first time, including recipes for oil of scorpion, an electuary made of gemstones, and an ointment made from frogs. Some of the material is by Ceccarelli himself, but the long section on Egyptian theriacum (pp. 179-191) is a translation from Prospero Alpini’s (1553-1617) De medicina Aegyptiorum.

Pharmacopoeias were issued by medical authorities and catalogued the drugs sold by apothecaries, as well as specifying and standardizing recipes for producing medicines. This edition, which bears the original dedication to Pope Gregory XIII (1502-85), contains the Latin prescriptions and recipes for medicines, with ‘new’ Italian descriptions and commentary and, where indicated, the commentaries of the Roman botanist and physician Pietro Castelli. Castelli later moved to Messina in Sicily, where he established the botanical gardens and cultivated many medicinal plants (known today as the Orto Botanico ‘Pietro Castelli’). His pupil there was the Sicilian botanist Paolo Silvio Boccone (1633-1704).

All early editions are very scarce. Of this edition, OCLC notes only University of Washington in the US.