DE LITERATORUM ET EORUM QUI MAGISTRATIBUS
First Paris edition of this pocket-sized medical book, offering advice on exercise, bathing, sleep, a healthy diet, and sex, with several rather telling sections underlined by an early owner.
Very good.
Price: $3,000.00
DE LITERATORUM ET EORUM QUI MAGISTRATIBUS
Guglielmo Gratarolo was noted for the publication of several "little self-help books" (Siraisi, 19) for non-specialists: DE LITERATORUM ET EORUM QUI MAGISTRATIBUS was meant for the use of learned people, but not necessarily for his fellow physicians. This compact work is often cited as an early example of the acknowledgment of the change in western sleeping habits since the classical period; Gratarolo "pointedly distinguished slumber of eight hours' duration [...] from prolonged sleep in 'ancient time,' as Hippocrates had advised" (Ekirch, 349).
This copy, at one time owned by the bibliophilic Bigot family of Rouen, shows a number of signs of having been read and referenced. An owner underlined sections on improving eyesight, what kinds of fruits one should not make wine out of, the nature of sleep, and the benefits of smelling roses and aloe. But the most copiously underlined section has to do with sexual advice. The owner seemed particularly interested in the positive effects of regular sex ("a man may thereby after a sorte séeme to be lighter then he was before, and to fetche his breath the better and with more facilitie"), the importance of sperm in maintaining a balance of the humours, and the idea that this balance is best kept by "using" the sperm at a "fit and convenient time" (i.e., whenever the mood strikes you). (Original text in Latin; translations here from the 1574 first English edition.)
OCLC does not record any holdings of this 1561 edition, the first printed in Paris. A very personal example of the "flourishing" (Siraisi, 13) self-help book genre in this period.
Read more: A. Roger Ekirch, "Sleep We Have Lost: Pre-Industrial Slumber in the British Isles," The American Historical Review, vol. 106 no. 2; Nancy G. Siraisi, "Medicine and the Renaissance World of Learning," Bulletin of the History of Medicine, vol. 78 no. 1.
The Object
Parisiis [Paris]: Fredericum Morellum [Federicus Morellus], 1561. Full title: De literatorum et eorum qui magistratibus funguntur conservanda praeservandaque valetudine, illorum præcipuè qui in ætate consiitentiæ, uel non longè ab ea sunt, Compendium, cùm ex probatioribus autoribus, tum ex ratione ac fifeli experientia concinnatum. 4.5'' x 3''. Contemporary semi-limp parchment binding. 101, [7] pages including index, collated complete. Armorial bookplate of the Bigot family of Rouen to front pastedown. Ownership inscription dated 1766 to front pastedown. Inscription above bookplate, "Prius est esse, quam esse tale." Inscription below bookplate, "Entre plusieurs autres petits ouvrages de / Gratarolus dans ce goût-cy, il y en a un / sur la physionomie de chaque nation / et un autre des meteores et des saisons." Later transcription of inscriptions tipped onto front flyleaf. Largely removed ownership inscription to title page. A couple sections with early ink underlining. Binding lightly soiled with mild cockling to rear. Early glue stain to front pastedown and flyleaf, leaves with scattered soil, largely contained to margins; final leaf with light edgewear, rear flyleaf stuck to rear pastedown at one corner. A solid copy.
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