![ARCHITECTURE - ST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL Manuscript planning brief for work under the supervision of Inigo Jones, [c.1631]](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2025-10%252F16%252F25762965-1-1.jpg%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)
![ADVERTISING POSTERfor 'The Suffragette' newspaper, [c.1913-1914]](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2025-06%252F25%252F25680656-116-1.jpg%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)
![ILLUMINATED ADDRESS – CLARA CODD Illuminated printed address signed by Emmeline Pankhurst, [1909]](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2025-06%252F25%252F25680656-32-1.jpg%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)
![MUSIC & RECORDINGS – ETHEL SMYTH Collection of printed music, song sheets and records, [c.1911-1912]](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2025-10%252F09%252F25680656-99-1.jpg%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)
This auction has ended. View lot details
You may also be interested in
Lot 1007
EARLY MANUSCRIPT OF BENIVIENI'S DE PESTE. BENIVIENI, ANTONIO. 1443-1502. Manuscript in latin on paper, "Tractatus de Pestilentia" ["De Peste"],
25 October 2022, 14:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$75,975 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Books & Manuscripts specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
Client Services (San Francisco)
Client Services (New York)
Client Services (Los Angeles)
EARLY MANUSCRIPT OF BENIVIENI'S DE PESTE.
BENIVIENI, ANTONIO. 1443-1502. Manuscript in latin on paper, "Tractatus de Pestilentia" ["De Peste"], 38 pages (plus one blank leaf), folio (270 x 210 mm; written area approximately 220 x 160 mm), Northern Italy: c. 1610, written in a semi-cursive hand, with corrections to leaf numbers at upper right corners of verso of each leaf, disbound, dampstaining to lower outside corner throughout. Together with a printed translation of the text.
Provenance: Sir Thomas Phillipps (ex ms 7579); sold by H.P. Kraus.
EARLY MANUSCRIPT ON THE PLAGUE FROM THE "FATHER OF PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY." Antonio Benivieni was physician and friend to Lorenzo de Medici ("Lorenzo the Magnificent"), and Savonarola, as well as treating the noble families of Florence, including Pazzis and Strozzis, alongside the Medicis. His writings on more than 200 case studies were posthumously edited by his brother and published in 1507 as De abditis nonnullis ac mirandis morborum et sanationum causis, "the first book on pathological anatomy, presenting the first reports of autopsies made specifically to determine the cause of death" (Garrison-Morton-Norman 2270). His methods, including for the first time in modern literature "reports of post-mortem examinations made specifically with a view to finding out the exact cause of death" (Osler), would be developed and furthered by Giovanni Battista Morgagni for his landmark work De Sedibus, et Causis Morborum..., published more than 250 years later in 1761.
De Peste, or "Tractatus de Pestilentia," written during the same period, sets forth a regimen for maintaining health during times of plague, pulling from his own first-hand experience, and incorporating ideas of Galen, Avicenna, Averroes, and Hippocrates, among others. He begins with a definition of "pestilentiam" as opposed to epidemic ("epidimiam") and endemic ("endimiam"), before discussing its causes, recognition and prescriptions for preserving health during times of plague. The final three pages contain a compilation of powders, potions, and medicines "praised by experts for preserving one from the plague." The work exists in three other known manuscript copies: Biblioteca Laurenziana Ashburham 781 (dedicated to Lorenzo the Magnificent, from which this manuscript is taken); Biblioteca Laurenziana Ashburham 922 (dedicated to Francesco Sassetti); and BNC Firenze Palatino 929 (dedicated to Donato Acciaioli).
Despite his prominence, no writings of Benivieni were published during his lifetime. "De Peste" was not published until G.M. Nardi's edition, based on Ash. 922, appeared in 1938. The present manuscript is the only manuscript example, outside of the the three institutional copies, we have been able to trace, institutionally or at auction. See Garrison-Morton 2270; Grolier Medicine 12; Norman 183; and Osler The Evolution of Modern Medicine (1913) for the 1507 De abditis.
REFERENCES:
Diaita: Le regole della salute nei manoscritti della biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, 18 (Florence, 2010).
Major, "Antonio di Pagolo Benivieni," in Bulletin of the Institute of the History of Medicine 3:10 (December 1935).
Provenance: Sir Thomas Phillipps (ex ms 7579); sold by H.P. Kraus.
EARLY MANUSCRIPT ON THE PLAGUE FROM THE "FATHER OF PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY." Antonio Benivieni was physician and friend to Lorenzo de Medici ("Lorenzo the Magnificent"), and Savonarola, as well as treating the noble families of Florence, including Pazzis and Strozzis, alongside the Medicis. His writings on more than 200 case studies were posthumously edited by his brother and published in 1507 as De abditis nonnullis ac mirandis morborum et sanationum causis, "the first book on pathological anatomy, presenting the first reports of autopsies made specifically to determine the cause of death" (Garrison-Morton-Norman 2270). His methods, including for the first time in modern literature "reports of post-mortem examinations made specifically with a view to finding out the exact cause of death" (Osler), would be developed and furthered by Giovanni Battista Morgagni for his landmark work De Sedibus, et Causis Morborum..., published more than 250 years later in 1761.
De Peste, or "Tractatus de Pestilentia," written during the same period, sets forth a regimen for maintaining health during times of plague, pulling from his own first-hand experience, and incorporating ideas of Galen, Avicenna, Averroes, and Hippocrates, among others. He begins with a definition of "pestilentiam" as opposed to epidemic ("epidimiam") and endemic ("endimiam"), before discussing its causes, recognition and prescriptions for preserving health during times of plague. The final three pages contain a compilation of powders, potions, and medicines "praised by experts for preserving one from the plague." The work exists in three other known manuscript copies: Biblioteca Laurenziana Ashburham 781 (dedicated to Lorenzo the Magnificent, from which this manuscript is taken); Biblioteca Laurenziana Ashburham 922 (dedicated to Francesco Sassetti); and BNC Firenze Palatino 929 (dedicated to Donato Acciaioli).
Despite his prominence, no writings of Benivieni were published during his lifetime. "De Peste" was not published until G.M. Nardi's edition, based on Ash. 922, appeared in 1938. The present manuscript is the only manuscript example, outside of the the three institutional copies, we have been able to trace, institutionally or at auction. See Garrison-Morton 2270; Grolier Medicine 12; Norman 183; and Osler The Evolution of Modern Medicine (1913) for the 1507 De abditis.
REFERENCES:
Diaita: Le regole della salute nei manoscritti della biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, 18 (Florence, 2010).
Major, "Antonio di Pagolo Benivieni," in Bulletin of the Institute of the History of Medicine 3:10 (December 1935).