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Lot 1
GRÜNPECK, JOSEPH. 1473-1532. Tractatus de pestilentiali Scorra sive mala de Franzos Originem. [Leipzig: Gregorius Böttiger, after October 18, 1496.]
Ending from 25 June 2025, 10:00 EDT
Online, New YorkUS$20,000 - US$30,000
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GRÜNPECK, JOSEPH. 1473-1532.
Tractatus de pestilentiali Scorra sive mala de Franzos Originem. [Leipzig: Gregorius Böttiger, after October 18, 1496.]
4to (198 x 139 mm). Gothic type. 34 lines. Initial spaces. Recently bound in a vellum decorated antiphonal leaf, custom silk-lined marbled paper-covered box, light browning and spotting.
Provenance: Acquired H.P. Kraus, 1991 (Americana Vetustissima catalogue, cat. no. 185, item 3).
EARLY (FIRST?) EDITION OF ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED WORKS ON SYPHILLIS.The earliest recorded epidemic of syphilis occurred in Europe in 1495, breaking out first among the army of Charles VIII after France's invasion of Naples. The popular "Columbian Theory" posits that the disease was introduced in Europe by Christopher Columbus and his crew, who carried it back from the New World in 1493, making the syphilis outbreak perhaps the first truly global epidemic. "Among the first writers on the topic of syphilis, Joseph Grünpeck von Burckhausen is inevitably cited as outstanding...while most summaries on any topic in the literature of syphilis would not be regarded as complete without mention of his name, his earnest and archaic words are not easily accessible" (Moore and Solomon, "Joseph Grünpeck and his Neat Treatise (1496) on the French Evil," in British Journal of Venereal Diseases, January 1935, p.1). Grünpeck's tractate is of considerable interest "because it is a personal document written by a very intelligent person who was alive at the time syphilis spread as an epidemic over Europe, and flourished in an apparently more virulent form than it has to-day" (ibid., p.2).
The first eight chapters represent "'autistic-undisciplined thinking in Science' (Bleuler) ... [employing a literary style] common to many writers in the period near the end of the Middle Ages, which was to mix pagan mythology and Christian dogma in a charmingly irresponsible way. However ... in Chapter IX Grünpeck suddenly changes his attitude and is metamorphosed from a religionist and astrologer into an observer of fact. His sentences in Chapter IX contain shrewd and practical advice which he formulates with lapidary-like precision" (ibid. p.2). In his discourse, he is pessimistic that drugs are a viable treatment, which was the prevailing opinion of physicians at the time, but he was nonetheless "the first to record mixed primary lesions, multiple primary lesions, and to note the second incubation period of syphilis" (Garrison-Morton-Norman).
Six editions were printed in Latin or German between 1496 and 1498. COPIES OF ANY EDITION ARE RARE ON THE MARKET. According to online records, no copy has sold at auction in the past 50 years. The last copy we trace in any sale is the present copy, sold by H. P. Kraus in his Americana Vetustissima catalog in 1991 (cat. 185, item 3). Alden & Landis 496.8; BMC III: 648; BSB-Ink V-77; see Garrison-Morton-Norman 2362; Goff G-515; GW 11571; HC 8093; Mead, H.R. Incunabula in the Huntington Library, 1746.
4to (198 x 139 mm). Gothic type. 34 lines. Initial spaces. Recently bound in a vellum decorated antiphonal leaf, custom silk-lined marbled paper-covered box, light browning and spotting.
Provenance: Acquired H.P. Kraus, 1991 (Americana Vetustissima catalogue, cat. no. 185, item 3).
EARLY (FIRST?) EDITION OF ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED WORKS ON SYPHILLIS.The earliest recorded epidemic of syphilis occurred in Europe in 1495, breaking out first among the army of Charles VIII after France's invasion of Naples. The popular "Columbian Theory" posits that the disease was introduced in Europe by Christopher Columbus and his crew, who carried it back from the New World in 1493, making the syphilis outbreak perhaps the first truly global epidemic. "Among the first writers on the topic of syphilis, Joseph Grünpeck von Burckhausen is inevitably cited as outstanding...while most summaries on any topic in the literature of syphilis would not be regarded as complete without mention of his name, his earnest and archaic words are not easily accessible" (Moore and Solomon, "Joseph Grünpeck and his Neat Treatise (1496) on the French Evil," in British Journal of Venereal Diseases, January 1935, p.1). Grünpeck's tractate is of considerable interest "because it is a personal document written by a very intelligent person who was alive at the time syphilis spread as an epidemic over Europe, and flourished in an apparently more virulent form than it has to-day" (ibid., p.2).
The first eight chapters represent "'autistic-undisciplined thinking in Science' (Bleuler) ... [employing a literary style] common to many writers in the period near the end of the Middle Ages, which was to mix pagan mythology and Christian dogma in a charmingly irresponsible way. However ... in Chapter IX Grünpeck suddenly changes his attitude and is metamorphosed from a religionist and astrologer into an observer of fact. His sentences in Chapter IX contain shrewd and practical advice which he formulates with lapidary-like precision" (ibid. p.2). In his discourse, he is pessimistic that drugs are a viable treatment, which was the prevailing opinion of physicians at the time, but he was nonetheless "the first to record mixed primary lesions, multiple primary lesions, and to note the second incubation period of syphilis" (Garrison-Morton-Norman).
Six editions were printed in Latin or German between 1496 and 1498. COPIES OF ANY EDITION ARE RARE ON THE MARKET. According to online records, no copy has sold at auction in the past 50 years. The last copy we trace in any sale is the present copy, sold by H. P. Kraus in his Americana Vetustissima catalog in 1991 (cat. 185, item 3). Alden & Landis 496.8; BMC III: 648; BSB-Ink V-77; see Garrison-Morton-Norman 2362; Goff G-515; GW 11571; HC 8093; Mead, H.R. Incunabula in the Huntington Library, 1746.