Infection and Immunity

Fracastoro, Girolamo, 1478 - 1553
Operum pars prior (et pars posterior) philosophica & medica...
Lugduni : apud Franciscum Fabruni, 1591.

As professor of Philosophy at Padua, and practising physician in Verona, Fracastorius moved in high intellectual and social circles. He understood the idea of contagion and advised moving the Council of Trent to Verona because of an epidemic of fever. In his great book De Contagione he formulated the idea that invisible living "germs" were the agents which transferred infection between individuals. He was also the author of a long poem about "the Gallic disease" whose hero "Syphilis" gave his name to the disease. Fracastorius followed his own council by fleeing from Verona to his country residence during the Plague.

RB 3591.1