iuses of the time whose "vanity, boastfulness, childish credulity,
superstitiousness was bound up with a genius that opened up many new
paths in science" (Gurlt). His work meant more for philosophy and,
above all, for mathematics than for medicine, but he has an important
place in the history of science.

Another genius who spent some years in Rome about the same time, and
evidently found it eminently favorable for his work, was Jerome
Mercurialis, who was sent by his native city to Rome on a mission to
Pope Pius IV, when about 32, and secured opportunities for study in
Rome so much to his desires that he spent seven years in medical and
philological studies there. After this he was invited to be
Trincavella's successor at Padua and from here was summoned by the
Emperor Maximilian II on a consultation to Vienna and richly rewarded
for his services. After seven years of medical professorship at Padua
he was for some twelve years in a similar capacity at Bologna, which
was then a Papal University, and then accepted the call of the Grand
Duke Cosimo I to Pisa. The Medici were laboring at this time to make
Pisa an important rival in education of Padua and Bologna and {455}
were offering alluring salaries and special inducements to the most
distinguished teachers in every department. Mercurialis' books on skin
diseases, on women's diseases, on the diseases of children and on
gymnastics, went through many editions and now sell for good prices in
auction rooms, for he is considered one of the classics of medicine.

Pius V (1564-72).--One of the physicians and intimate friends of Pope
St. Pius V was Placidus Fuscus, who wrote a volume "On the Use and
Abuse of Astrology in Medicine." Fuscus, according to the inscription
on his tomb, was "distinguished for his social service, his work at
the hospital of the Santo Spirito and among the poor of Rome and
especially those in prison."

Gregory XIII (1572-85).--As might be expected, the physician of Pope
Gregory XIII, the Pope to whom we owe the correction of the calendar,
was a distinguished medical scientist who had been earlier an intimate
friend as well as physician to St. Ignatius Loyola the founder of the
Jesuits. His name was Alessandro Trajano Petronio of Castiglione, and
he is often mentioned in the medical literature of the time and wrote
a book, _De Victu Romanorum et de Sanitate Tuenda_, "On The Diet of
the Romans and the Preservation of Health," which he dedicated