About this Item
16mo, pp. [32], '850' (recte 800); woodcut printer's device to title, woodcut initials, typographic headpieces; very occasional light marginal marks and dampstaining, a few marginal paperflaws, some loss to title due to worming (affecting a few words and device) and corrosion from ink stamps to verso, old paper repair at foot of title (obscuring early inscription 'San Mathei Grabeboni' [sic], visible in reverse to verso), old ink stamp to p. [vi] causing staining to adjacent pages, some worming to last five leaves touching a few words; nonetheless a good copy in contemporary vellum, title inked to spine and bottom edge; a little staining and wear to corners, and some worming to endpapers; early inscription to front pastedown 'Libro ad uso di Fra Modesto di ?Brescia', early monastic ink stamps lettered 'S.G.M.' to title verso and 3v.Scarce first vernacular edition of the works of the medieval Sienese physician Ugo Benzi (c. 1360 1439); an extraordinary testament to their enduring popularity into the seventeenth century, expanded with commentary and a new appendix on the abuse of alcohol and tobacco by the Turinese doctor Giovanni Lodovico Bertaldi (d.1625), physician to the Duke of Savoy.Benzi's Tractato utilissimo circa la conservazione della sanitade, first published in Milan in 1481, 'contained a series of personal hygiene tips and was one of the first medical texts in the vernacular' (DBI, trans.) The re-emergence of Benzi's work in Turin in 1618, and again in 1620, is described by Lockwood as their 'final outburst of glory'. 'Ugo's three vernacular works were compendia of Galenic dietary, simple and intelligible to the layman. Their revival in the seventeenth century indicates that ordinary medical practice lagged at least a century behind the development of scientific theory' (Lockwood, p. 392). Following discussion of air, exercise, sleep, and eating, the bulk of the work details the properties, qualities, and medicinal uses of various foods and drinks, arranged alphabetically and running up to 'vino'. There follows a 'trattato nuovo' by Bertaldi on the 'passions' of the mind (including love, anger, fear, and sadness). He then considers the abuse of tobacco and alcohol, adding several remedies for inebriation not touched upon by Benzi, amongst them a giant wheel used in Geneva in which the drunk are spun around until they vomit; he also suggests resting under a thick blanket after a night of heavy drinking, or putting oneself off alcohol entirely by allowing a small green frog or an eel to die in one's drink (pp.807 8). The work ends with Benzi's advice on keeping one's body in shape, so that it is neither too fat nor too thin: as causes of weight loss, he points out, inter alia, lentils, hard bread, hare's meat, excessive intercourse, melancholy about hopeless situations, and sleeping on an empty stomach. Provenance:With ink stamps 'S.G.M.' and inscription 'San Mathei Grabeboni' to title, likely the church of SS Gusmeo e Matteo in Gravedona, on Lake Como. OCLC finds four copies in North America (Harvard, McGill, NLM, New York Academy of Medicine) and two in the UK (Leeds, Liverpool). USTC 4027827; NLM/Krivatsy 1102. See BM STC Italian, pp. 95 6 (recording the second edition only); Lockwood, Ugo Benzi (1951). Language: Italian.
Seller Inventory # G350
Contact seller
Report this item
