Milestones of Science Books

VIVES, Juan Luis / GESNER, Conrad [GESSNER, Konrad].

De Anima & vita Libri tres. Eiusdem argumenti Viti Amerbachii de Anima Libri IIII. Philippi Melanthonis Liber unus. His accedit nunc primum Conradi Gesneri De anima liber, sententiosa brevitate, velutique per tabulas & aphorismos magna ex parte conscriptus, philosophiae, rei medicae ac philologiae studiosis accommodatus: in quo de tactilibus qualitatibus, saporibus, odoribus, sonis, & coloribus, copiose accurateque tractatur.

Zürich: Jacob Gesner, 1563.

1st Edition. Hardcover. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Very Good. Item #003829

[February 1563]. 8vo (168 x 107 mm). [16], 718, [2]; [2], 719-951, [53] pp. Text in Latin and Greek. Woodcut initials; separate title-leaf to Gesner's work, dated February 1563. Signatures: [alpha]⁸ a-z⁸ A-2R⁸. Numerous mispaginations. Blank leaf T8 present after p.718. Bound in contemporary pigskin richly tooled in blind, spine with 4 raised bands, brown dyed edges, original endpapers (small defect at spine ends, lower corners worn, ties gone). Text with light even browning throughout, occasional minor spotting, a few pages with faint dampstaining, short tear at lower blank margin of leaf B4. Provenance: owner stamp on title-page (crowned monogram). A very good copy in untouched binding. ----

RARE FIRST EDITION, FIRST (ADAMS) ISSUE OF THIS COLLECTION of three texts on Aristotle's De Anima in one volume. Part of the curriculum of medical students was that they were expected to have studied and written about Aristotle's De anima. Conrad Gesner, who had studied medicine and was deeply interested in the human soul, wrote his De anima in this tradition. It is the fourth of the works contained in this book and is published here for the first time.
A friend of Erasmus and Thomas More and tutor to Queen Mary I of England, Vives has been called "the father of modern empirical psychology..." (Zilboorg & Henry). "Vives anticipated Bacon and Descartes in devoloping an empirical psychology in which the mind was to be studied both through introspection and observation of others. From his exhaustive analysis of memory he developed a theory of association of ideas, which recognized the emotional origin of certain associations, as well as the link between associations, emotions and memory. He was also the first to describe the physiological effects of fear" (Garrison-Morton). Vives maintained that the essence of the human mind was indescribable but could be known through the mind's actions.
The title page to Vives's De anima & vita libri tres bears no date of publication. Gesner's De anima liber has its own full title page dated February 1563. "Adams lists three issues of this edition, with no priority stated. The second and third issues both have signature alpha reset: in the second, an inverted fleur-de-lys appears above the imprint, while the third has 'Cum index duplici' in place of the fleur-de-lys. Both the second and third issues have the misprinted headline 'Inddx' on leaf [alpha]5r; this headline is correctly spelled in the first issue" (Norman).
References: Norman 2161; A.-S. Goeing, in: Gessner-Katalog Zürich, 2016, p. 50); VD16 V 1805, G 1694 (Gesner) and M 2768 (Melanchthon); Adams V 941; Vischer K 67; Leemann-van Elck, Gessner 74; Garrison-Morton 4963.2; Zilboorg & Henry, pp. 180-195. - Visit our website to see more images!

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