Astrological medicine, covering the theory of critical days as introduced by Galen into the Arabic w 1652

Andrea Argoli

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• About the artwork
  De diebus criticis et ægrorum decubitu libri duo.
  Padua, Paulus Frambottus, 1652. 4to. With ca. 230 letterpress diagrams in text.
  Contemporary stiff paper wrappers.
  
  Second edition of Argoli's work on astrological medicine, divided into two "books", the first covering the doctrine of critical days -- "The critical days in their Arabic garb had a long life: the doctrine first appears in Kitab ayyan al-buhran (On the Critical Days), which is an Arabic translation of Galen's De diebus decretoriis by Hunayn Ibn Ishaq al-Ibadi, and continues in the medical worjs of al-Razi, Haly Abbas, Avicenna, and others"(Ibn Ezra) -- and the second provides "prognostica" that allowed an astrologer to tell whether a disease would be curable, long, or chronic, based on observations made by the ancients. Argoli often refers to the works of Galen and Hippocrates (Boqrat).
  
  With an occasional line underscored and some lines ticked off in the outer margin. Binding slightly soiled, but otherwise very good. Corners of the first few leaves slightly thumbed, a minor waterstain in the last few leaves, and a minor tear in the title-page; a very good copy, wholly untrimmed.
  
  ICCU 002335; Thorndike VII, pp. 122-124; for the author: DSB I, pp. 244-245; cf. Ibn Ezra, Elections, interrogations, and medical astrology (2011), pp. 24-25.
• About the artist
  Andrea Argoli (1570, Tagliacozzo – 1657) was an Italian scholar. He was a philosopher, lawyer, mathematician, astronomer and astrologer and writer of medical subjects. He was professor of mathematics at the University of Rome La Sapienza from 1622 to 1627, and of the University of Padua from 1632 to 1657. He wrote many works, e.g. Ptolemaeus parvus (1652), De diebus criticis (1652, second ed.).