MUSITANO, CARLO. – Priest and physician, born at Castrovillari on 6 January 1635, died at Naples in 1714. He studied literature, philosophy, and theology at the Conventuals’ Studium in his native city, and was ordained a priest in 1658. Having subsequently graduated in medicine, he devoted himself to the experimental study of science, with the Pope’s permission, making his scientific results public after twenty years of experiments. His innovative method attracted wide attention in Europe, to which the vehement invectives of the Galenists of the Salernitan School contributed no little. His works, numerous and extensive, were printed and reprinted in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, and Holland.
The principal ones are: Pyrotechnia sophica rerum naturalium (Naples 1683, Cologne 1700, Venice 1700); De morbis mulierum (Naples 1683, Venice 1700, Cologne 1700; Italian translation by his nephew Giuseppe M., and German translation, Leipzig 1743); Trutina medica antiquorum et recentiorum (Venice 1688); De morbis infantium et puerorum (Cologne 1688); De lue venerea libri quatuor (Naples 1689, Cologne 1698; Lyon 1698; French translation, Trevoux 1711); De morba gallico (Naples 1689; Italian translation, there 1697, 1707); Opera medica chimico-practica (Cologne 1700); Pyrotologia seu tractatus de febribus (there 1700, Venice 1701, Amsterdam 1704). M.’s Opera omnia appeared in 2 vols. at Genoa in 1716 and at Venice in 1738.