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An academic disputation on the grape across science, medicine, and theology.
Gerlach, Hieronimus Sigismundus
De Uva, ex Physicis
1666, Wittenberg, Literis Michaelis Wends
First Edition
Overview
De Uva, Ex Physicis belongs to the seventeenth-century disputatio tradition, in which natural philosophy moves fluidly among botany, medicine, philology, and theology. The grape serves as the occasion for a learned exercise that balances classical authority, biblical reference, and natural observation, reflecting Lutheran university practice, wherein the study of nature is interwoven with moral and religious thought.
Inside the book
The pamphlet names Johann Ernest Gering as professor presiding over the session, with Hieronymus Sigismund Gerlach of Meissen as respondent, defending his thesis. The work examines the etymology of the grape, drawing on Latin, German, and Greek terminology; distinguishes between fresh and dried grapes; considers the vine within pagan and biblical traditions; and discusses the qualities of old and new wine. It cites Galen, Pliny, Dioscorides, Columella, Varro, Isidore, Horace, Ovid, Tibullus, Juvenal, Homer, Maimonides, Buxtorf, Ambrose, Apuleius, and Macrobius. This ephemera belongs to the tradition of academic disputations in natural philosophy, that is, the study of the natural world.
Why La Fenice chose it
A grape becomes a universe in this piece of Lutheran erudition: philology, scripture, and natural philosophy entwine in true academic disputatio style.
Condition Report
Leaves [12]
Modern paper cover; ex libris Dr Bassermann-Jordan. First and last leaves darker from contact with the cover; the ex libris also cause a discoloration on the facing title page. A sound copy.
Dimensions (inches): 8 x 6 1/2 x 1/8
About the author
Johann Ernst Gering and Hieronymus Sigismund Gerlach were 17th-century scholars active at Wittenberg in 1666.