Varias materias de diversas facultades, y sciencias politica contra peste: govierno en lo espiritual, temporal, y medico, essencia, y curacion del contagio del ano passado de 1649. Cuyos docume[n]tos serviran de reglas para todos los siglos futuros, para contagios, y pestes: assi para su curacion, como para el govierno politico

Very rare first edition of this highly interesting work on plague, viewed from medical, religious and political standpoints, by a lawyer from Utrera in southern Spain, written in the wake of the devastating epidemic that struck the city and province of Seville in 1649 as part of the Great Plague of Seville (1647-52) that claimed an estimated 600-700,000 lives.

After defining plague and contagion, and considering divine and human remedies against them, Salado gives a brief life of St Roch, who gained renown for healing plague victims, and of St Sebastian. He then examines the 1581 outbreak in Utrera, discusses plague in relation to sin, and details historic plagues from Biblical times onwards. Turning to the events of 1649, Salado gives an account of the plague in Seville and Utrera, discussing effective governance during times of pestilence, in particular relating to hospitals, and care of the sick by priests, doctors and surgeons. Following a brief digressionary account of the history of medicine, he ends with a thorough analysis of the nature of the 1649 plague, of how it spread, its causes, signs of its coming, and possible treatments, during which he discusses air, sex, baths, food and drink, sleep, exercise and rest, bloodletting and purging, bubos and pustules, nausea, and fainting.

Provenance: inscription to title verso reads, 'Pertinet ad conuentum Hispalensem dei parae del [sic] populo Discalceatorum S.P.N. Augustini die 20 Junij anno 1723 Fr. Ferdinandus ab incarnatione' i.e. this copy was formerly in the possession of the Monastery of St Augustine in Seville.

Krivatsy, NLM 17th century, 10156. OCLC finds only one copy in the US, at the NLM (without first leaf), and one copy in the UK, at the Wellcome (lacking quire [para]2). We can trace no copies at auction since 1985.

Small 4to, ff. [7], 249, [1], without the first leaf (with woodcut arms) present in the Wellcome copy; text mostly in two columns per page, woodcut initials, head- and tail-pieces; leaf [para]4 (dedication) loose with small loss at inner margin and fore-edge slightly frayed, small loss to blank corner of f. 119, some worming to blank upper margins of quires Eee-Ooo, a few quires slightly browned; overall very good in contemporary limp vellum, title inked to spine, remains of ties; small cuts to spine, a few marks; ownership inscription to title verso dated 1723, marginal notes to ff. 122v and 123r.