The Anatomy of Melancholy, what it is. With all the kindes, causes, symptomes, prognostickes, and severall cures of it
Oxford: John Lichfield and James Short for Henry Cripps, 1621.
The Anatomy of Melancholy, what it is. With all the kindes, causes, symptomes, prognostickes, and severall cures of it
Oxford: John Lichfield and James Short for Henry Cripps, 1621. First edition. Small quarto measuring 180 x 138mm, bound in late 17th century sprinkled calf rebacked to style and with corners restored. Red morocco spine label, new endpapers. Edges stained red. Ownership inscription of W. Whiteway, 1622 to the title; later ownership inscription of Joseph Pendlebury very slightly shaved; modern ownership inscription to front pastedown. Internally complete, including the scarce final errata leaf (Ddd4). Two leaves (R6-7) torn at upper corners with loss of the running head; a few trivial stains. In all an exceptionally pleasing copy of this rare treatise. Housed in a custom slipcase.
"The Anatomy, as its publishing history shows, was one of the most popular books of the seventeenth century. All the learning of the age as well as its humour -- and pedantry -- are there. It has something in common with Brandt's Ship of Fools, Erasmus' Praise of Folly, and More's Utopia" (Printing and the Mind of Man). Purporting to be a medical description of the various causes, symptoms, and treatments of melancholia, Burton's Anatomy became highly influential across genres. A satire in its own right, it would go on to shape etiquette manuals, medical manuals, and even major literary characters that came after it.
Provenance from the library of political thinker and civil servant William Whiteway (1599-1635) of Dorchester, Dorset.
PMM 120. (Item #3253)
