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Historical Bibliography Updated: May 6, 2020

Tractado cótra el mal serpentino.

Publication Details

Seville: D. de Robertis, 1539 CE.

Diaz de Isla, a Barcelonese surgeon, wrote of a disease “previously unknown, unseen and undescribed”, which appeared in Barcelona in 1493 and which was obviously syphilis. This is probably the earliest reference to the West Indian origin of syphilis (the writer believed that the disease originated in Haiti) and the book is the chief source of the opinions of those who believe in the American origin of syphilis. Text reproduced with German translation in Janus, 1901, 6, 653-55; 1902, 7, 31-40. Extensively discussed in No. 2430.

Digital facsimile from Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

Catalog MetadataReference Information
Entry Number#2367
Permanent Linkhttps://staging.historyofmedicine.com/entry/3213
Author Bio LinkWikipedia ↗
External URLtractado-ctra-el-mal-serpintino

Geographic Context

Publication place: Seville

Mentioned in annotation: Barcelona