PANAROLI, Domenico

Aerologia cioe discorso dell’aria, trattato utile per la sanita. (bound with) L’Aria celimontana.

      Domenico Marciana [1642], Rome - Two volumes in one. 8vo. [xxiv], 91, [5]; 16 pp. A5-8 of first work misbound between pages 8 and 9 of second work. With 2 title pages, full-page printer’s device and blank leaf at end of first work, woodcut diagram of the 16 winds. Contemporary vellum; interiors toned with scattered stains, tear to one preliminary leaf. From the library of Angeli Pompony with his signature. First edition of a rare treatise on meteorology. The author treats the effects of air, winds, and climate on the environment, living conditions and health, as well as the influence of the stars and other celestial bodies on the atmosphere. He describes the nature of air, its necessity for life, and the causes of wind and different climates. References are made to many of the most prestigious natural philosophers in history, including Albertus Magnus, Sacrobosco, Argoli, Avicenna, Porta, Agricola, Mercuriale, and Ruscelli. The work is dedicated to Fabritio Naro, head of Santissimo Salvatore Hospital. Together with the first edition of L’Aria celimontana, a tract on climate conditions and public health in Rome.In the seventeenth century air was still considered an element, and thus could not be made up of a mixture of gases, though the seeds of such an idea can be seen in the work of Hooke twenty years later (Pledge, Science Since 1500, p. 107).Domenico Panaroli was professor of botany and later of anatomy at the University of Rome. He is also known for discovering hemolytic jaundice in newborns.