Santé

1768 · 64184 — London UK: Printed for Benjamin White at Horace’s Head 1768. 8vo. x 281 1 pp. Contemporary full tree calf raised bands & gilt decorated spine gilt & red morocco spine label minor bumping to corners front hinge just starting minor offset toning from calf on endpapers still a VG unsophisticated copy from the library of Charles Pratt 1st Earl of Camden 1714-1794 an important lawyer judge and Whig politician who was a leading proponent of civil liberties in the 18th Century w/ armorial bookplate on front pastedown and Eleanore Weinstock. Third edition in English and the first printed in 8vo. of Cornaro’s major work on longevity health and hygiene first published in 1558 as Discorsi della vita sobria. This edition followed on the 1635 & 1653 editions in 12mo. and this one includes all four discourses together with the Italian text of the 1620 Venice edition included as pp. 147-281 in this volume. Cornaro 1475-1566 was from a celebrated Venetian family and derived his ideas from Greco-Roman literature drawing liberally from Cicero and Galen but with an optimistic and hopeful tone and according to Gruman this work was the first to claim with enthusiasm the desirability of longevity.This work was also recognized by Jakob Burckhardt as one of the most remarkable autobiographies of the Italian Renaissance. Cornaro’s views on the prolongation of life supported Burckhardt’s thesis that “it was not the revival of antiquity alone but its union with the genius of the Italian people which achieved the conquest of the Western World. . . the Renaissance is not a mere fragmentary imitation or compilation but a new birth The Civilization of the Renaissance.†Garrison considered this work the best treatise on personal hygiene. See: Gruman A History of Ideas About the Prolongation of Life p. 68; Garrison p. 233 1st ed.; Graesse II p. 265; Brunet II p. 275. Printed for Benjamin White, at Horace’s Head, hardcover