Pascasii Iusti Ecloviensis. Alea sive de curanda ludendi in pecuniam cupiditate.

[The two books by Pâquier Joostens from Eeklo, Doctor of Philosophy and Medicine about Gambling or The Curing of Compulsive Gambling.]

This book is the first modern edition and translation of the work by the Flemish doctor Pascasius Iustus, originally published in 1561 and written in Early Modern Latin. His book is one of the earliest reports on addiction and for over two hundred years was regarded as core literature. Being both the doctor and the patient – he himself was a compulsive gambler -, as a man well travelled and well read in Latin literature he gives a thorough analysis of this phenomenon which permeated all stratas of society. He defines compulsive gambling as severe illness, as a sick decay of both the soul and the body, of which he meticulously describes the symptoms and the course, observing the behaviour of the affected persons. This new edition in both the original Latin and the German translation is supposed not only to contribute to the scholarship of Renaissance, but also to make available a remarkable tractatus hitherto hard to get the hands on.