Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller - Old and Rare Books

Dissertatio inauguralis medica De plica, vom Juden-Zopff... Praeside Dn. Hieronymo Ludolff... Eruditissimo doctorum examini subiiciet Michael Lüttcke, Cussalino - Pomeranus, Autor et Respondens... Die XXVIII. Junii anno MDCCXXIV. (Inaugural Medical Dissertation on the Plica [Polonica], or Jewish Plait... under the Supervision of Dominus Hieronymus Ludolf... the Most Learned Doctor Examines Michael Lüttke, of Koszalin - Pomeranian, Author and Respondent... on 28 June, 1724)

Ludolf, Hieronymus (praeses); Michael Lüttke (respondens); Johann Friedrich de Pré (contributor)

[Erfurt]: [Grosch], 1724. Hardcover. Small quarto. A-C4 D2 (= 14 leaves). 26, [2 additamenda] pp. Woodcut initial, head- and tailpieces. Recent decorative boards (old wrappers retained). Tightly trimmed, resulting in loss of publisher information at bottom of title, else a fine copy.

First edition of this doctoral thesis "pro licentia summos in arte medica honores ac privilegia doctoralia, more rituque majorum solenni consequendi / for permission to obtain the highest honors and privileges of a doctorate in the medical art, according to the manner and ceremony of the elders." An anti-Semitic element which seeks to underscore cultural and hygienic differences is quite apparent as the Plica Polonica comes to be known in the Enlighenment era as the Plica Judaica, or as appears in German in the title of the present thesis, Juden-Zopff (Jewish Plait). The candidate, Michael Lüttke, discusses the origin, causes, and treatments of a common condition of matted hair (plica; trichoma), refered to in the medical literature of the early modern period as Plica Polonica, the Polish Plait. Such matted braids, like enormous dreadlocks, may date back to Scythian settlements in eastern Europe; the belief that the plica could function as an amulet, to draw and store illness leaving the body, was well established in the traditional medical practices of the medieval Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. (The present doctoral candiate hails from this very region, the Polish city of Koszalin in Pomerania). By the eighteenth century, the matted plaits were viewed by the educated classes as a medical condition, associated with poor hygiene. Fine. Item #54257

References: VD18 11414871.

Price: $1,500.00