Porzio, Simone (1496-1554) De Puella Germanica, quae Fere Biennium Vixerat sine Cibo, Potuque.
Florence: Lorenzo Torrentino, 1551.
Quarto, A-B4, bound in modern marbled boards, contents good, 8 x 5 1/2 in.
This treatise examines the case of a ten-year-old German girl named Margaret Weiss who had reportedly been fasting, abstaining even from water, for two years. The physician Bucoldianus first published an account of Weiss's miraculous survival in 1542. The physician Porzio takes a second look here, speculating that perhaps she lives on air alone. However, his overall conclusion is stark: she is very near to death and will need to begin eating again to survive.
BM STC Italian 537; Durling 3746. Wellcome I, 5222; Brunet IV, 830; Graesse V, 419; Hirsch/H. V, 660; Osler 3726; Adams P-1963.
