Ein hubscher Tractat von dem Ursprung des Bösen Franzos

Ein hubscher Tractat von dem Ursprung des Bösen Franzos

Incunabula

Grünpeck, Joseph, approximately 1473-approximately 1532

Woodcuts (prints)

This small pamphlet on syphilis [A Fine Treatise on the Origin of the French Evil] was enormously popular, appearing in four different editions in Latin and German in the last years of the fifteenth century. The pamphlet was printed during the course of a syphilis epidemic which originated in France and reached Germany in 1495. Joseph Grünpeck theorized that the outbreak was caused by a disastrous conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn.

Woodcut of planet positions from Joseph Grunpeck's Ein hubscher Tractat von dem Ursprung des Bosen Franzos (Nuremberg, circa 1497)

Grünpeck, Joseph, approximately 1473-approximately 1532

Caspar Hochfeder

1497, circa

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Boston Medical Library Rare Books Collection (Ballard 355)

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image

1 woodcut print

still image

DigID0002527

Purchased for the Boston Medical Library, 1931