VIRDUNG, Johannes von Hasfurt.

First edition of this interesting, illustrated medical manual on the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses following the position of the planets. Johannes Virdung of Hasfurt (1463-1538/39) was court astrologer and physician to the Elector Palatine. Virdung ‘quotes Ptolemy stating that astrology is not a separate science, but requires a knowledge of astronomy. Astrology is diagnosis, “sermo de stellis” [a message coming from the stars]; astronomy is “nomos” [law]’ (Cantamessa). ‘De Cognoscendis […] Morbis’ comprises several important works. Virdung’s own treatise, illustrated with ten half-page astrological woodcuts, explains techniques for astrological calculations, how these can be used for medical treatments and how they relate to the four humours, as well as numerous recipes for purges and evacuations, what are ‘dies critici’ and how physicians can draw a prognosis from them, and the basic principles of uroscopy. There follow several important texts by major authors, all discussing astrological medicine. Hermes Trismegistus’ ‘iatromatemathica’ (2nd century) states that ‘illnesses are the consequence of planetary conflict, as the planet presiding over a specific body part (sympathia) is weakened by another’s malign influx. Suitable treatments could be found through remedies prepared from plants or animals tied by sympathy to the attacked planet’ (Cantamessa). ‘Prognostica ex egroti decubitu’ was then attributed to Galen (2nd-3rd century), and was another founding text of ‘iatromathematica’, discussing specific planetary junctures between the Moon and the Zodiac and what consequences these might have on illness. Marsilius Ficinus’ (1433-99) ‘De vita sana’ focuses on how scholars who spend their time hunching on books, reading, and taking little exercise can take better care of their health; his ‘De vita longa’ discusses a more general ‘regimen sanitatis’; ‘De vita coelitus’ focuses on Plotinus’ theories of sympathy’, and his ‘Epidemiarum antidotus’ examines the plague, its contagion, symptoms, and treatments. Gallucci’s helpful introduction, placed at the end, introduces the basic tenets of astrology, with tables and diagrams. A very interesting compendium of medical astrology.

Catalogues and a bibliography state that it was ‘issued with a folded leaf containing woodcuts of 5 discs and a pointer, with letterpress instructions on how to cut them out and assemble them to form volvelles on the base circle printed on leaf 28v; the intact leaf is often lacking.’ We have traced it in about half of the recorded copies for which collation is available (OCLC), and it is absent here.