Ignis lambens, historia medica, prolusio physica, rarum pulchrescentis naturae specimen (The Burning Fire, a Medical History, a Physical Profusion, a Rare Specimen of Beautiful Nature)

Verona: Francesco Rossi, 1642. First edition. Hardcover. Very good-. Octavo (14.9 by 9.3 cm.) - Collation: a8 b4 A-M8 N4 (= 112 leaves; blank N4); [24], 198, [2, blank] pp. Woodcut device at title-page; printed marginalia; woodcut initials and ornaments. Contemporary vellum; old library shelf mark in ink and paper label with title in ink (faded and worn) at spine. Front hinge starting. Stain at bottom G4 (but not affecting legibility); skillful repair (10 by 20 cm) at A4, resulting in partial loss of date to an encomium, else a very good copy, with crisp text, and complete with final blank.

First edition of the author's second published work, a vibrant melange of metaphysics, natural history, and medical etiology and pharmacology. While the familiar pre-modern theory of the four humors is invoked, the author's focus appears to be on the relation between "fire," in its may and varied manifestations, and illness. The maladies discussed include leprosy, anemia, and Plica Polonica (the Polish Plait, trichoma, a severe matting of the hair), "a disease which he claims to have described in detail" (Kayserling). Ignis Lambens appeared on the heals of Il Colostro, his brief treatise on colostrum (the first secretion from the mammary glands after giving birth). This latter work was also published by Rossi in 1642. It appears along with other works dealing with obstetrics and infant diseases in La Commare, a compendium edited by Girolamo Mercuriale (1530-1606), a philologist and physician, most famous for his work De Arte Gymnastica. This publication, in which De Castro is still noted as "medico physico Avinionese" (a medical doctor from Avignon), may be understood as a dissertation intended to establish his credentials in Verona. Its priority is noted in the present Ignis Lambens at the head of the encomium written by the English regimental doctor, Humberston: "Ad D. Ezech. de Castro, qui post editas de Colostro lucubrationes, has etiam de Igne Lambente publici juris fecit" (For Ezechiel de Castro, who after having published his lucubrations On Colostrum, made public those concerning The Burning Fire).

Ezechiel / Pedro de Castro was was one of a number of conversos (Marranos, new Christians, or crypto-Jews) who held distinguished positions as physicians and professors of medicine in Italy, which included Amatus Lusitanus (Ferrara), Antonio Rodrigo de Fonseca (Pisa and Padua), and Gabriel de Fonseca (Pisa and Rome). All were descendants of those Jews in Spain and Portugal who accepted baptism, but who secretly preserved loyalty to their ancient faith. The various branches of the De Castro family, in particular, furnished a large number of distinguished physicians in the early modern era. (Friedenwald devotes an entire chapter to "The Doctors de Castro"). Soon after the establishment of the Inquisition, members of the family emigrated to Bordeaux, Bayonne, Hamburg, and to cities in the Netherlands, and later to the United States. Many, however, were not so fortunate: "[D]octors of this name were punished by the Inquisition as followers of Judaism as late as the eighteenth century" (Keyserling, citing four examples). Ezechiel and Pedro de Castro were long believed to be two individuals. In his 1933 article in the Revue des Études Juives, "Un dernier mot sur Pedro alias Ezekiel de Castro," Cecil Roth proved that they were the same person. Born in Bayonne in 1603 and christened Pedro, he was the son of Luis de Castro. He studied in Spain during the period 1618-1625. Between 1625 and 1629 he practiced medicine in France, especially in Avignon. In 1640 he openly embraced Judaism at Verona, under the name of Ezekiel de Castro, and was appointed physician to the Jewish Community. About 1650 he reverted to Catholicism and again took his baptismal name of Pedro" (Friedenwald). In the later edition of De Castro's annotated medical compendium, Bibliotheca medici eruditi (Bergamo: J. Santini, 1742) we learn that the erudite Abraham Zacutus Lusitanus (1575-1642), another physician of converso heritage, "was his intimate, master and guide."

Unlike many physicians of converso heritage in the 16th and 17th century, "Ezechiel de Castro was not unfamiliar with the commentaries of the Bible, as well as with the medieval writings of Jewish literature" (Kayserling). In his discussion of the Plica Polonica (p. 69), De Castro refers to "Raabiam Hebreum medii temporis doctissimum" (Raabia, a most learned Jew of the middle ages, whose works were only known to Kayserling in manuscript form). He goes on to cite a rare case recounted by Eliezer ben Zadok in the talmudic tractate Nidda (p. 70) and cites Maimonides (p. 72: "Aegyptus Moyses"). Referencing the biblical story of the snakes sent among the Israelites (Num. 21.6), De Castro argues against Rashi and Ibn Ezra, contending the the snakes actually breathed fire (p. 116: "Nobis erunt flammigeri serpentes isti" -- To us they will always remain fire-breathing snakes). In chapter 5 of the second book (p.183), in which De Castro examines inanimate things that vibrate with fire (res inamimatae ignem vibrantes, e.g., minerals), he makes reference to the well-known chronicle, Zemah David, written by David ben Solomon Gans (1541-1613). References: H. Friedenwald, The Jews and Medicine (1967): pp. 316, 452-3; M. Kayserling, Bibl. Española-Portugueza-Judaica, p. 36; M. Kayserling, "Zur Geschichte der jüdischen Aerzte, Ezechiel de Castro," [in:] Monatsschrift für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums, Jahrg. 10, H. 1 (1861), pp. 38-40; ITICCUPUVE08563; USTC 4016240.

Full title and imprint: Ignis lambens, historia medica, prolusio physica, rarum pulchrescentis naturae specimen. Illustrissimo & excellentissimo domino Aloysio Georgio Divi Marci procuratori et invictae venetorum reipublicae copiarum imperatori fortissimo D. Ezechiel de Castro doctor medicus phys. Veronae: apud Franciscum Rubeum. 1642. (Inventory #: 54461)