When the Italian doctor Francesco Redi wrote to Leopoldo de’ Medici
in 1670, he rhapsodized about the intense allure of books in biblical terms:
“I believe that my soul will certainly be lost to perdition on
account of prohibited books. If instead of creating Adam God had created me in Eden, and if instead of prohibiting me from eating that fi g and that apple he had prohibited me from reading books, I am so weak that I surely would have done worse than Adam.”

Redi’s insatiable bibliophilia, described with a substantial degree of humor and self- deprecation, deftly raises several important themes about proohibited books and early modern physicians that are central to this study


Forbidden Knowledge: Medicine, Science, and Censorship in Early Modern Italy by Hannah Marcus. the university of chicago press, chicago and london

The lower glyph ususally seen in the context of anatomy, is used to indicate "something disgusting", not to be seen perhaps. It is as a matter of fact, used in the hieroglyph for the brain, which is interesting, since it may indicate that the brain, among many other parts of the body, is not to be seen
Source: Gardiner's sign list

THE EXHIBITED OBJECT: THE PUSTULE GLYPH