GRUENPECK, Josephus.

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Tractatus de pestilentiali scorra sive Mala de Franzos originem remediaque eiusdem continens co[m]pilatus a vene rabili. A medical incunable of note, Grünpeck's work is among the earliest dated works to discuss syphilis. Perhaps the earliest global epidemic, cases arrived in Europe with the return of Columbus from his first voyage in 1493 and quickly spread among the army of Charles VIII after the French king invaded Naples, hence the name "Mala de Franzos" (the French disease) given in the title here. Although over the years some have doubted the Columbian exchange theory as to the origin of the epidemic, modern genetic analysis has all but confirmed its American origins.The work is a commentary by Grünpeck, the Bavarian secretary and chaplain of Emperor Maximilian, on a broadside poem of Sebastian Brandt; the text of this poem is included here, along with an extensive discussion of the astrological causes of the disease. According to Garrison-Morton, Grünpeck was "the first to record mixed primary lesions, multiple primary lesions, and to note the second incubation period of syphilis." The work appeared in six editions all in late 1496 and early 1497, in either Latin or German, the former with an additional introduction regarding treatment. All editions are scarce; we note the last example on the market being sold by H. P. Kraus in his famed catalogue Americana Vetustissima (cat. 185, item 3).

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