TARENTA, Valascus de.

Handsome printed edition of this popular medical manual, first published in Barcelona in 1484. Valascus de Tarenta (c.1382-c.1417) was a Portuguese physician trained at Montpellier, and ‘one of the foremost teachers and practitioners in Europe’ (Heirs of Hippocrates). ‘Philonum’ is ‘a general textbook of medicine intended to cover all of medicine except surgery’ (Heirs of Hippocrates), and a priceless reference work for European physicians well into the C16. Book I is devoted to conditions of the brain, from melancholy to sneezing, lethargy, migraine, and vertigo. Book II opens with a section on the anatomy of the eye, followed by dozens of ailments such as swelling, styes, tumours, corneal abrasion, and a section on the oropharyngeal organs. Book III focuses on the lungs and chest, examining coarseness, pleurisy, pneumonia, and breast milk – as well as smelly feet! – while Book IV discusses ailments of the stomach, e.g., dysentery, worms, and vomiting. Book V is devoted to liver conditions, the bladder, diabetes, and kidney ailments, and Book VI discusses the genital area, intercourse, menstruation, gout, and infertility. Book VII studies all kinds of fevers. The penultimate work is a treatise on epidemics, from their causes to the best ‘regimen sanitatis’ to prevent epidemic illnesses, as well as various treatments. The last treatise focuses on pustules and swelling in illnesses such as scrofula, leprosy, ulcers, fractures, poisons, baldness, and several other common conditions. The appended ‘Introductorium’, by Johannes de Tornamira, also a physician at Montpellier, is a compendium of various types of medicaments. The initial table of contents summarises all the remedies mentioned in Tarenta’s text, in alphabetical order and with page numbers. An important early medical encyclopaedia of the early modern period.