(Jerome), a most eminent Italian poet and physician, was born at Verona in the year 1482. Two singularities are related of him in his infancy: one is, that his lips adhered so closely to each other when he came into the world, that a surgeon was obliged to divide them with his incision-knife; the other, that his mother was killed with lightning, while he, though in her arms at the very moment, escaped unhurt. Fracastor was of parts so exquisite, and made so wonderful a progress in every thing he undertook, that he became eminently skilled not only in the belles lettres, but in all arts and sciences. He was a poet, a philosopher, a physician, an astronomer, a mathematician, and what not? He was a man of vast consequence in his time; as appears from pope Paul III.'s making use of his authority to remove the council of Trent to Bologna, under the pretext of a contagious distemper, which, as Fracastor deposed, made it no longer safe to continue at Trent. He was intimately acquainted with cardinal Bembus, Julius Scaliger, and all the great men of his time. He died of an apoplexy at Cafi near Verona, in 1553; and in 1559, the town of Verona erected a statue in honour of him.

He was the author of many performances, both as a poet and as a physician; yet never man was more disinterested in both these capacities than he: evidently so as a physician, for he practised without fees; and as a poet, whose usual reward is glory, nothing could be more indifferent. It is owing to this indifference, that we have so little of his poetry, in comparison of what he wrote; and that, among other compositions, his Odes and Epigrams, which were read in manuscript with infinite admiration, yet, never passing the press, were lost. What we have now of his, are the three books of "Siphilis, or of the French disease;" a book of Miscellaneous Poems; and two books of his poem, intitled, Joseph, which he began at the latter end of his life, but did not live to finish. And these works, it is said, would have perished with the rest, if his friends had not taken care to preserve and communicate copies of them: For Fracastor, writing merely for amusement, never troubled himself in the least about what became of his works after they once got out of his hands. Fracastor composed also a poem, called Alcon, sive de cura canum venaticorum. His poems as well as his other works are written all in Latin. His medical pieces are, De Sympathia & Antipathia,—De contagione & contagiosis morbis,—De causis criticorum dierum,—De vini temperatura, &c. His works have been printed separately and collectively. The best edition of them is that of Padua 1735, in 2 vols 4to.