Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1128

JEAN ANTHELME BRILLAT-SAVARIN (1755-1826) Physiologie du goût; ou, méditations de gastronomie transcendante. A. Sautelet 1826 Vol. I: 590 pp.; Vol. II: 442 pp. 20.2 cm.

This famous work on eating was published anonymously by the author in the year of his death. A lawyer, writer, and musician, Brillat-Savarin fled during the French Revolution to the United States where he supported himself by giving French lessons and playing in an orchestra. He wrote a number of works on political economy and law after his return to France in 1796 but saved his most engaging style for his treatise on gastronomy on which he worked intermittently. Much of the work is written with mock grandeur covering such areas as taste, smell, diet, pleasures of the table, the history of cooking, recipes, and anecdotes of remembered feasts. Although there is a definite scientific approach to the material, the charm of the book lies in the personality and wit of the author which are apparent throughout.

Cited references: Cushing B767; Osler 4394 (English ed., 1884); Wellcome II, p. 239 (1841 ed.)

Gift of John Martin, M.D.