The First Treatise on Asthma
CLETI, Ezio De Morbo Strangulatorio opus... Rome, L. Grignanus, 1636
8vo, pp 160 [16, including terminal blank]; a very attractive copy in contemporary vellum, old stamp of Medical-Surgical Society of Aberdeen on title. £2850
First edition of this extremely rare work on asthma and related bronchial diseases. Cleti discusses the history of 'the strangulating illness', its symptoms, and different means of alleviation and treatment.
Cleti was a Roman physician, but is unknown to the standard medical biographies. He is the author of at least three other medical books, one of which is on pleurisy, so he evidently took a special interest in respiratory illnesses.
BL 17th-century Italian Books p. 241; Wellcome 6859 (Supplement); Piantanida et al., Autori Italiani del '600 1880; not in NUC; OCLC records Wellcome, University of Chicago, and National Library of Medicine
£2850
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