Giovanni Costeo

Johannes Costaeus, De facili medicina 1604

Giovanni Costeo , also called Johannes Costaeus , (* 1528 in Lodi ; † 1603 in Bologna ) was an Italian doctor , botanist and chemist .

Life

Costeo came from a noble family in Casalborgone . Little is known about his education and youth. He is first mentioned in his medical treatise Tractatus de venarum meseraicarum usu , published in Venice in 1565, and it is known that he worked at Lodi Hospital in 1568. In 1570 he became professor of medicine in Turin and personal physician to the Duke of Savoy Emanuel Philibert , whom he tried to cure by dieting liver disease and gallstones. After the Duke's death in 1580 he became a professor in Bologna, first for practical medicine and from 1593 to 1598 for theoretical medicine. In addition to medicine, in which he published many papers, he dealt intensively with botany. He was in contact with Ulisse Aldrovandi and Justus Lipsius .

In chemistry, he improved the distillation apparatus for the production of wine spirit (alcohol) through cooling devices.

Fonts

De universali stirpium natura. Libri duo. Turin 1578 Digital copy of the Bavarian State Library
Ioannis Mesuae Medici Clarissimi Opera. Volume 1 Venice 1581 Digitized by the Bavarian State Library
Supplementum in Secundum Librum Compendii Secretorum Medicinae Ioannis Mesues. Venice 1581 Digitized by the Bavarian State Library
Disquisitionum physiologicarum in primam primi canonis Avicennae sectionem Libri sex. Bologna 1589 Digitized by Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
Avicennae Arabum Medicorum Principis, Canon medicinae. Volume 1 (Book 1-3). Venice 1595 Digital copy of the Bavarian State Library
Avicennae Arabum Medicorum Principis, Canon medicinae. Volume 2 (Book 4-5). Venice 1595 Digital copy of the Bavarian State Library
Avicennae Arabum Medicorum Principis, Canon medicinae. Volume 3 (Indices rerum memorabilium in Avicennae de re medica Libris). Venice 1595 Digital copy of the Bavarian State Library
De igneis medicinae praesidiis libri duo. Venice 1595 Digital copy of the Bavarian State Library
De humani conceptus et partus tempore. Bologna 1596 Digital copy of the Bavarian State Library
Tractatus de potu in morbis. Papia 1604 digitized version of the Bavarian State Library

De facili medicina per Seri, & Lactis usum, libri tres. Papia 1604 digitized from google books

Web links

Augusto de Ferrari, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 30, 1984 (Italian)

References and comments

↑ Costäus, Johann, in: Winfried R. Pötsch (lead), Annelore Fischer, Wolfgang Müller: Encyclopedia important chemists, Harri German 1989, p 224

personal data
SURNAME	Costeo, Giovanni
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Costaeus, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Italian medic, botanist and chemist
DATE OF BIRTH	1528
PLACE OF BIRTH	Lodi (Lombardy)
DATE OF DEATH	1603
Place of death	Bologna

[1] Costäus, Johann, in: Winfried R. Pötsch (lead), Annelore Fischer, Wolfgang Müller: Encyclopedia important chemists, Harri German 1989, p 224