Portaleone, Abraham ben David. De Auro Dialogi Tres [Three Dialogues on the Application of Gold in Medicine]

(MEDICINE)

Johannes Baptistam `a Porta

Venice

1584

FIRST EDITION. Printer’s device on title. Headpieces. Historiated initials. On p. 12, splendid leonine woodcut. Fine condition

Fürst, III, p. 115; H. Friedenwald, Jewish Luminaries in Medical History, Vol. I (1946) p. 126

Medical Treatise by the Italian Jewish Physician, Author of “Shiltei ha-Giborim.” Abraham Portaleone (1542-1612), began his career as a Talmudic scholar, having studied under Rabbis Jacob Fano, and Judah and Abraham Provenzali. Later, he studied medicine at the University of Pavia, qualifying there in 1563 and was subsequently granted a license by the Dukes of Mantua, Guglielmo and Vincenzo I to treat Christians. This distinction, rare for a Jewish physician, was confirmed by Pope Gregory XIV. It was at the command of said Duke Guglielmo that Portaleone wrote this extensive and intriguing study on the use of gold in medicine. See Alessandro Guetta, “Avraham Portaleone: From Science to Mysticism” in Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, II (1999) pp. 41-47; Samuel S. Kottek, “Jews between Profane and Sacred Science in Renaissance Italy: The Case of Abraham Portaleone” in Religious Confessions and the Sciences in the Sixteenth Century (2001), pp. 108-118; S. Simonsohn, History of the Jews of the Duchy of Mantua (1977), p. 584, 637-8, 645-6; EJ, Vol. XIII, col. 908-09 Bound with: Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni Francisco. De Auro Libri Tres [Three Books on On Gold: Metallurgy] (Venice: Ioannem Baptistam Somaschum, 1586). pp. (8), 131. * Robertis Ivvenatiensis. Questiones Tres (Venice: Ioannem Baptistam Somaschum, 1585). pp. 66