De natura, causis, et legitima curatione febris pestilentis Hieronymi Donzellini Philosophi ac Medici Veronensis, ad Josephum Valdanium Veronensem, Brixiae Medicum, epistola. In qua etiam de Theriacae natura ac viribus latius disputatur

4to (191x136 mm). [4], 18 leaves. Collation: A-E⁴ F². Printer's device on the title page. Woodcut historiated initials. Later half cloth, marbled boards. On the front pastedown stamp of the University of Göttingen dated 1963 giving away the book as a duplicate; on title page later manuscript note and ownership entry “Martini Fogeli Hamburg”; on title-page verso older stamp “Ex Bibliotheca Regia Academ. Georgiae Aug.”. Title page soiled, some occasional light foxing, margins cut short.

First edition, dedicated by the author to Leonardo Mocenico.

“When Valdagno prescribed theriac to petechial typhus patients in Brescia in 1570, he was criticised by the local College of Physicians; he responded by defending the use of the medicament in a volume entitled De theriacae usu in febribus pestilentialibus (‘On the Use of Theriac in Pestilential Fevers1, Brescia, 1570). Vincenzo Calzaveglia intervened at this point to support the stance of the College, of which he was a member, maintaining that there was a difference between pestilential fever and malignant fever: theriac was useless against the latter, which was the disease afflicting Brescia at the time (his work was entitled De theriaca abusu in febribus pestilentibus [‘On the Abuse of Theriac in Malignant Fevers'], Brescia, 1570). When Donzellini entered the debate, he defended Valdagno by endorsing Galen's theories. Calzaveglia responded with a series of polemical pamphlets and an acrimonious ‘letter in Latin' (‘lettera in latino') which, alongside medical arguments, attempted to discredit his rival by criticising his track record with the Inquisition and his exile for religious reasons. The controversy dragged on for three years with further scathing publications until Donzellini and Valdagno were both banished from Brescia. Girolamo's enemies even made an attempt on his life, and he was only saved when the crowd stepped in to help, as he informed Zwinger in a letter in 1573. The repercussions of the polemic had now spread well beyond the borders of the Republic, and Donzellini was adept at finding support. One of his allies was Marsilio Cagnati, a young Veronese graduate of Padua University; in a letter written to his older friend in 1571, Cagnati described the Hippocratic manuscripts he had found in the Vatican Library and asked if he could read Donzellini's and Valdagno's books about pestilential fever. As Donzellini's enemies had failed to undermine his reputation by drawing on his unorthodox past and had botched their assassination attempt, they decided to denounce him to the Holy Office in Verona […]Girolamo Donzellini became involved in the controversy by publishing some short treatises: De natura, causis et legitima curatione febris pestilentis (‘On the Nature, Causes, and the Legitimate Treatment of Pestilential Fevers', Venice: C. Borgominieri, 1570); Libri de natura, causis et legitima curatione febris pestilentis in quibus etiam de theriacae natura ac viribus disputatur apologia per Eudoxum Philalethem edita adversus Thessali Zoili oppugnationes (‘Books on the Nature, Causes, and the Legitimate Treatment of Pestilential Fevers, which also Discuss the Apology on the Nature and Properties of Theriac by Eudoxus Philalethes Published Against the Attacks by Thessalus Zoilus', Venice: A. Bocchino, 1571; Verona: S. dalle Donne, 1575); Eudoxi Philalethis adversus calumnias et sophismata cuiusdam personati qui se Evandrophilacten nominavit apologia (‘Apology by Eudoxus Philalethes against the Calumnies and Sophism Pronounced against Evandrophilactes', Verona: S. dalle Donne, 1573)” (A. Celati, The world of Girolamo Donzellini. A network of heterodox physicians in Sixteenth-Century Venice, London-New York, 2023, pp. 148-149 and 167-168).

On this controversy, see also C.L. Redmond, Girolamo Donzellino, Medical Science and Protestantism in the Veneto, Stanford, CT, 1984, pp. 63ff.

Girolamo Donzellini, a native of Orzinuovi near Brescia, was a scion of an illustrious family of Verona. He made his first studies at Brescia and then matriculated at Padua University obtaining a degree in medicine in 1541. In the same year he started to teach theoretical medicine at Padua, where his colleagues were Giovanni Battista da Monte and Andreas Vesalius. In 1543 he moved to Rome serving Giulio Della Rovere and Durante Duranti. Here Donzellini got involved with persons suspected of heresy and frequented the circles of Pietro Antonio di Capua and Diego de Enzinas. After warnings from friends, he left the service of Cardinal Durante and went to Venice. The atmosphere of that city proved to be more responsive to Donzellini's Protestant beliefs. He practised medicine, what allowed him to communicate his religious convictions for a while before beginning to evoke suspicion. He then fled from Venice in 1553 before he could be questioned by the Inquisitional tribunal, first stopping at Ferrara to visit the duchess Renée, and then proceeding to Germany where he met Pier Paolo Vergerio in Tübingen (cf. M.L. Portmann, Der Venezianer Arzt Girolamo Donzellini etwa 1527-1587 und seine Beziehungen zu Basler Gelehrten, in: “Gesnerus”, 30/1-2, 1973, pp. 1-6).

Serious family matters brought him back to Brescia in 1560. He appeared spontaneously before the Holy Office in Venice in November of the same year, and in February 1561 abjured his errors. He was condemned to a year of imprisonment, but most of the sentence was suspended. He moved to Verona and became a member of the local medical college. However, the Inquisition brought him to trial a second time in 1574, and this trial, much more than the first, revealed the extent of his involvement with heretics and heretical doctrines. He abjured for a second time in 1575 and remained in the Inquisition's prison until 1577, when he was released after the plague ravaged in Venice. Donzellini was then allowed to practice medicine again, and he pursued his career until his final encounter with the Holy Office in 1587, when prohibited books were found in his home. Shortly afterwards he was sentenced to death and executed by drowning.

Donzellini's numerous relations abroad as well as in Italy are indicative of the breath of his contacts and his general reputation as a physician and author of medical writings. He sometimes disguised himself under the pseudonym of Eudoxus Philaletes (cf. Redmond, Op. cit., passim; see also R. Palmer, Physicians and the Inquisition in 16^th Century Venice, in: “Medicine and the Reformation”, O. P. Grell & A. Cunningham, eds., London, 1993, pp. 122-125; and E.A. Rivoire, Eresia e Riforma a Brescia, in: “Bolletino della Società di Studi Valdesi”, CV-CVI, 1959, pp. 33-90).

Edit 16, CNCE17741; USTC, 827669.

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