Bonhams 1793 : SCOTUS (MICHAEL) Liber physiognomiae, 1477

Liber physiognomiae, first edition, 73 leaves (of 78, lacking 4 leaves of G, and blank K6), 23 lines, Roman type, capital spaces with guide letters, colophon leaf cut to size and window-mounted, ownership inscription of "Coll. Regensis Societs. Jesu. F.R.D." and ink stamp in margin of title, with quite extensive seventeenth century annotations in Latin (possibly by a member of the medical profession), and some underlinings, blindstamp on title and final leaf, modern mock vellum boards, gilt morocco spine label, g.e., soiled [ISTC im00551000; BMC V 242.IA; BSB-Ink M-376; Goff M551; GW M23301; HC 14550*; IGI 6417; Norman 1507; Wellcome 28194813], 4to (200 x 145mm.), [Venice, Jacobus de Fivizzano, Lunensis], 1477

Sold for £1,250 inc. premium

Footnotes

FIRST EDITION of a work by the Scottish born thirteenth century mathematician, scholar and translator. "Most of what appears as book I in the printed editions contains a detailed treatise on generation of human beings, with anatomical and physiological descriptions, information on the best time for conception, on sexual behavior, and on the state of the fetus during each of the nine months after conception. The rest of book I deals with differences between genera and species of animals. Books II and III contain the Physiognomia proper (apart from some chapters on dreams and auguries from sneezes). In these a systematic survey of the different parts of the body, in connection with the basic or other qualities affecting them, is meant to show how souls are intrinsically dependent for their natures on the bodies that they inhabit: 'animae sequuntur corpus'" (DSB).

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