MIREBELLI, Hieronymo Montuo.

First edition of this very rare practical collection of cures, literally ‘Preparations for Diseases.’ It is dedicated to Francis II as King of France and Scotland, after his marriage to Mary Queen of Scots in 1558, with a prefatory letter on ancient medicine. The privilege at the rear, dated 1554, notes that Mirebelli, also known as Jérôme de Monteux (1495-1560), was surgeon in ordinary to the king.

Each disease treated here is divided clearly into cause, diagnosis, prognosis and remedy, the latter including recipes and instructions. The first chapter advocates touch as a diagnostic tool, while the second is a long chapter on pain, followed by sections on headaches; this guide is clearly designed for the average user to easily diagnose their own conditions by feeling. Mirebelli is interested in mental illnesses including mania, delirium, melancholy, amnesia, lethargy and insomnia, catatonia, etc. Sexual conditions described include gonorrhea, impotence, priapism and onerogmos, i.e. nocturnal excretions. Drawing on ancient Greek and Arabic sources, Mirebelli advises using amulets as both preventative measure and active cure, many sections having specific instructions on what stone or gem to use in combatting the disease or condition. To treat impotence, for example, Mirebelli advises the reader to wear an amulet of wolf testicles, or to tie the bladder of a bear around the right arm, or that of a lizard or badger around the left.  

In addition to the sexual material, there is a strong focus on women’s medicine, conception and childbirth (which cannot be entirely coincidental given the timing of the book’s dedication to the recently married king). Mirebelli discusses menstruation, natural, immoderate and insufficient, and abnormal discharges of menstrual blood. He provides sections on sterility and an Aristotelian theory of conception and fertility, how one might predict the number of children a mother will have, and why children are like their parents. He describes premature births and miscarriages, unsuccessful pregnancies, difficult labour, and post-partum cramps. There are two brief sections on virginity, one with various tests to determine virginity, the other giving advice on how to return the mother to a ‘virginal’ state after birth. Other conditions include when the labia are excessively swollen, obstruction of the uterus, uterine ulcers and prolapse, and hysteria. 

No copies in North American libraries recorded by OCLC.