https://earlymoderneurope.hist.sites.carleton.edu/files/original/9a2739649f694bf9ecd0c8d72c2d1242.jpg 24d9c6b5715c46d8c583a3f3b6c928dd Physical Object An inanimate, three-dimensional object or substance. Note that digital representations of, or surrogates for, these objects should use Moving Image, Still Image, Text or one of the other types. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource De Contagione et Contagiosis Morbis Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Girolamo Fracastoro Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jack Williams Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1546 Description An account of the resource Considered by many to be the masterpiece of Girolamo Fracastoro, an Italian poet, physician, astrologist and geologist, this manuscript was the first text to suggest the idea of germ theory. In it Fracastoro suggests the idea of disease-causing particles known as “fomites” which rapidly multiply and cause disease. His ideas were widely praised at the time of this book’s publishing, but were largely discounted until 300 years later, when his theories were properly proved by Koch and Pasteur. Fracastoro is a classic example of the “renaissance man” a scientist whose many disparate studies covered the gamut of renaissance science. Fracastoro was a colleague of Copernicus, and likely studied astronomy with the famous astronomer (Nutton). What makes this book interesting in the overall idea of the scientific revolution is its startling accuracy even in a time of superstitious medicine. In it Fracastoro successfully predicts the true cause of disease many centuries before this was properly discovered, and like much of renaissance medicine his ideas are noted but not acted upon. This is what I found the most interesting about medical discoveries in this age, their seeming purposeful ignorance. Even though he suggests a different way of looking at medicine, humoral medicine is still practiced throughout this period. And even though his advice is enough, at one time, to convince the Pope himself to move a vital religious group to avoid disease, the Council of Trent, he is still unable to spread his ideas into common culture (Nutton). Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived https://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/record/9200332/ABO__2BZ165423609.html?q=++De+contagione+et+contagiosis+morbis Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource No Copyright-NonComercial use Only