Libri leciti, gesti proibiti: Thomaso Cazola medico e astrologo da Como

The article describes the final years in the life of Tommaso Cazola, an empiric physician astrologer who, in the second half of the 16th century, ran afoul of the Inquisition. None of the 70 or so books in his library are forbidden; yet the fruit of those readings, printed on flyleaves advertising the therapeutic services offered by Tommaso, is a triumph of astrology of the worst sort: another fine mixture of ‘cheese and worms’, in short. One of those sheets has come down to us, and – contrary to what is always assumed in the case of ephemeral prints for everyday use – the sheet turns out to have come from the workshop of a master typographer. If Tommaso had continued his medico-astrological practice without hanging those flyleaves in public, the Inquisition would not have been interested in this man, who, after banishment from Venice, a daring escape and imprisonment, ended his days serenely in the lagoon city.