Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 386.5

LEONARDUS LESSIUS (1554-1623) Hygiasticon, or, The right course of preserving life and health unto extream old age : together with soundnesse and integritie of the senses, judgement, and memorie. Printed by the printers to the Universitie of Cambridge 1634 2nd edition. [44], 210, 70 p. 12 cm

Additional authors: Ferrar, Nicholas (1592-1633); Cornaro, Luigi (1475-1566); Landi, Ortensio (ca.1512-ca. 1553). Three copies in the UK, four in the US makes this very rare. A very attractive copy of a scarce book (same year as the first edition), a translation by Nicholas Ferrar or Thomas Sheppard of Lessius, a translation (or free rewriting) by George Herbert of A treatise of temperance and sobrietie by Luigi Cornaro, and a translation of Esser miglior la vita parca della splendida & sontuosa attributed to Ortensio Landi. “It was also in collection with Ferrar’s Little Gidding community that Herbert himself undertook the translation, under the title Treatise of Temperance and Sobriety, of a mid-sixteenth-century Italian work by Luigi Cornaro. Although Herbert apparently knew Italian, as well as Spanish and French, his translation was largely based on a Latin version of the text and was published in 1634 with a preface explaining that: ‘Master George Herbert of blessed memorie, having at the request of a Noble Personage translated it [Cornaro’s treatise] into English, sent a copie thereof, not many months before his death, unto some friends of his, who a good while before had given an attempt of regulating themselves in a matter of Diet.’ It is likely that the “Noble Personage” who commissioned the translation was Bacon and the ‘friends’ were the Ferrars”.

Cited references: Wellcome I #3757; NLM 17th c. #6918

John Martin M.D. Endowment