Medical Prescription Taken from the Manuscript “Libro de’ Segreti Cavato da Molti Mastri di Cristali et da Altri Hominij Literati ” Danzica 1645 (Mn. 5461 della Biblioteca Casanatense di Roma)

Abstract

In the Casanatense Library - Rome, few years ago, a manuscript was found, written in Danzig in 1645, containining a great number of glass recipes but also recipes of alchemic and metallurgical subject and about forty recipes of practical medicine. If the generality of recipes were published in 2004, the medical recipes are here transcribed and commented with the help of experts in pharmaceutical chemistry and in medicine history. The medicine recipes of the manuscript are typical of the therapeutic technique in use in the 17th  century, deriving from an empirical knowledge and from a magic-popular heritage that accompanied the medical doctrine till modern era.