![[BURTON, Robert (1577-1640)]. The Anatomy of Melancholy, what it is. With all the kindes, causes, symptomes, prognostickes, and severall cures of it. By Democritus Iunior. Oxford: John Lichfield and James Short for Henry Cripps, 1621.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2001/NYR/2001_NYR_09878_0157_000(033322).jpg?w=1)
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[BURTON, Robert (1577-1640)]. The Anatomy of Melancholy, what it is. With all the kindes, causes, symptomes, prognostickes, and severall cures of it. By Democritus Iunior. Oxford: John Lichfield and James Short for Henry Cripps, 1621.
Chancery 4o (183 x 141 mm). Collation: a-e8 f4 (title, dedication to the 8th Baron Berkeley, preface, synopsis first partition); A-S8 (first partition, synopsis second partition); T-Z8 Aa-Hh8 (second partition, synopsis third partition); Ii-Zz8 Aaa-Ccc8 (third partition); Ddd4 (Conclusion of the author to the Reader, Errata). Woodcut initials and headpieces, typographical ornaments. (Small burn hole on Qq3 affecting a few letters, a few minor marginal stains.) 19th-century blue morocco gilt, edges gilt (minor rubbing to joints); cloth slipcase. Provenance: Gordon Castle (bookplate) -- Charles Larkin (signature on front pastedown) -- extensive 20th-century marginal notations in a neat miniscule cyphers and markings crossing text in colored ink apparently attempting to support the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy -- purchased from Dawson's, London, 7 April 1971.
FIRST EDITION of the classic study on depression. Numerous editions attest its early popularity. Its treatment is encyclopedic, with long digressions, and the book's influence - literary and psychiatric - has never waned. "The Anatomy...was one of the most popular books of the seventeenth century. All the learning of the age as well as its humour--and its pedantry--are there. It has something in common with Brant's 'Ship of Fools', Erasmus's 'Praise of Folly', and More's 'Utopia', with Rabelais and Montaigne and like all these it exercised a considerable influence on the thought of the time. Dr Johnson deeply admired it, and Charles Lamb's often and strongly expressed devotion served to rescue the Anatomy from a brief period of oblivion..." (PMM).
A very interesting copy, bearing meticulous notations apparently attempting to support the controversial Bacon-Shakespeare theory.
Grolier/English 18; Grolier Langland to Wither 30; NLM/Krivatsy 1967; Jordan-Smith 1; PMM 120; STC 4159; Norman 381.
Chancery 4o (183 x 141 mm). Collation: a-e8 f4 (title, dedication to the 8th Baron Berkeley, preface, synopsis first partition); A-S8 (first partition, synopsis second partition); T-Z8 Aa-Hh8 (second partition, synopsis third partition); Ii-Zz8 Aaa-Ccc8 (third partition); Ddd4 (Conclusion of the author to the Reader, Errata). Woodcut initials and headpieces, typographical ornaments. (Small burn hole on Qq3 affecting a few letters, a few minor marginal stains.) 19th-century blue morocco gilt, edges gilt (minor rubbing to joints); cloth slipcase. Provenance: Gordon Castle (bookplate) -- Charles Larkin (signature on front pastedown) -- extensive 20th-century marginal notations in a neat miniscule cyphers and markings crossing text in colored ink apparently attempting to support the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy -- purchased from Dawson's, London, 7 April 1971.
FIRST EDITION of the classic study on depression. Numerous editions attest its early popularity. Its treatment is encyclopedic, with long digressions, and the book's influence - literary and psychiatric - has never waned. "The Anatomy...was one of the most popular books of the seventeenth century. All the learning of the age as well as its humour--and its pedantry--are there. It has something in common with Brant's 'Ship of Fools', Erasmus's 'Praise of Folly', and More's 'Utopia', with Rabelais and Montaigne and like all these it exercised a considerable influence on the thought of the time. Dr Johnson deeply admired it, and Charles Lamb's often and strongly expressed devotion served to rescue the Anatomy from a brief period of oblivion..." (PMM).
A very interesting copy, bearing meticulous notations apparently attempting to support the controversial Bacon-Shakespeare theory.
Grolier/English 18; Grolier Langland to Wither 30; NLM/Krivatsy 1967; Jordan-Smith 1; PMM 120; STC 4159; Norman 381.
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Please note that the illustration for this lot is not actual size as stated in the catalogue.