Bartolomeo Squarcialupi - Libro de cauteri

Bartolomeo Squarcialupi - Libro de cautery

Bearing the full title Libro de le experiençe che fa el cauterio del fuocho ne corpi umani, this is a medical treatise attributed to the doctor Patavino Bartolomeo Squarcialupi, which specializes in the various applications of cauterization. The text on the applications of hot irons is composed in a hybrid of Venetian and archaic Italian dialects and was produced sometimes around the turn of the 15th century in Padua, Italy. The illumination in the manuscript is part of a Paduan illustrative tradition from the court of the Carraresi family that was strongly influenced by Giotto (ca. 1267–1337). It has been conventionally known as Libro or Trattato dei cauteri since it was thus identified by the Italian doctor Giuseppe Albertotti (1851–1936) in his 1908 outline of the work. In its current state, the manuscript represents a larger, fragmentary codex, whose missing parts were then replaced with loose pages and bound sometime in the 19th century. Altogether, three medical texts have been bound together, all originating from either the late–14th or early 15th centuries. The text is written in a neat Gothic script, which is adorned with intricate initials in red and blue, as well as surprisingly accurate depictions of human anatomy in delicately colored miniatures.