(_b_) _Liber de homine: cuius su[n]t libri duo. Primus liber de
conservatione sanitatis_.... [Liber secundus de causis in homine
circa compositione[m] eius], Bologna, 1474. The work is in Italian,
and consists of a number of paragraphs, each beginning with the word
‘perchè’. There is a servile dedicatory epistle in Latin addressed
to Giovanni Bentivoglio. The first book is concerned with diet, and
occupies two-thirds of the volume. The second book answers questions
on the subject of physiognomy and bears resemblance in many passages
to the _Anatomy_. It is taken in the main from the pseudo-Aristotelian
_Problemata_. The book is without pagination or figures. It is well
printed, and illuminated examples are not infrequently encountered.
This work was very popular. In 1478, during the lifetime of its author,
it was audaciously pirated at Naples with the following _incipit_:
‘Incomenza el Libro chiamato della uita costumi natura & om[n]e altra
cosa pertine[n]te tanto alla conservatione della sanita dellomo quanto
alle cause et cose humane. Co[m]posto per _Alberto Magno_ filosofo
excellentissimo.’
In 1497, after Manfredi’s death, the work appeared in black-letter
folio at Bologna, with its author’s original dedication slightly
altered. The text in this edition commences, ‘Perchel sophio nele cose
che noi viuemo: & lo indebito modo del viuere nostro: induce in noi
egritudine’.
In 1507 it appeared at Venice in small black-letter quarto as _Opera
noua intitulata Il perche utilissima ad intendere la cagione de molte
cose_. By this title, _Il Perchè_, the work, which ran through numerous
editions, has usually been known. It continued to be reprinted as late
as 1668.
(_c_) A treatise on the Plague: _Tractate degno & utile de la
pestile[n]tia co[m]posto p[er] el famosissimo philosopho medico &
astrologo maestro Hieronymo di manfredi da Bologna_, Bologna, 1478.
This was translated into Latin by the author himself in the same year.
The work owes much to Avicenna, but contains some original clinical
observations, and shows a certain independence of the prevailing spirit
of the age by quoting opinions of contemporary as well as of ancient
physicians. The remedies are similar to those recommended by John
of Bourdeaux in his widely distributed tract on the plague, and are
probably derived ultimately from the _Regimen Sanitatis Salerni_.
(_d_) _Prognosticon ad annum 1479_, Bologna, 1478. We reproduce the
terminal page of this work (Fig. 10).
[Illustration: Fig. 10. The last page of Manfredi’s _Prognosticon ad
annum 1479_, Bologna, 1478.]
[Illustration: From his tomb in the Church of S. Giacomo Maggiore at
Bologna