A scarce presentation the first two volumes of Chiarugi’s ambitious 1811 medical manual, made especially appealing by the striking provenance of Francis Henry Egerton. A third volume, published in 1812, is not present here.

Bibliographic Details

Author: Chiarugi, Vincenzo (1759–1820)
Title: La fisica dell'uomo ossia corso completo di medicina interna e esterna per uso degli ufiziali de sanita`
Place of Publication: Firenze [Florence]
Publisher: Giovacchino Pagani Librajo et al.
Date: 1811
Pagination: Two volumes – Vol. I: xviii, 278 pp.; Vol. II: 342 pp. [Volumes I & II only of 3; Vol. III was published in 1812]
Binding: Contemporary half leather over marbled boards, pages entirely uncut as published
Size: 8vo (20.5 × 13.2 cm)
Provenance: Presentation inscription in French to half-title of Vol. I, “de la part de l’auteur”; armorial bookplates of The Honourable Francis Henry Egerton, “Prince of the Holy Roman Empire”; armorial wet-stamps to title pages; “Ashridge Library” wet-stamps to first text leaves

Condition

Very Good internally, in Good to Fair only bindings. Volumes I and II only, lacking the third volume published the following year. Bindings worn, with leather peeling and flaking from spines and loss to gilt lettering; boards rubbed. Internal hinges sound and bindings remain solid. Pale stain to corner of half-title, title, and first couple of text leaves in Vol. I, and faint dust-marking to top edge of final text leaf. Pages generally clean and bright throughout, and especially pleasing in their survival as entirely uncut copies.

Description

A scarce and highly interesting presentation part-set of Vincenzo Chiarugi’s ambitious early nineteenth-century medical manual, written for the use of Italian health officials and intended as a broad introduction to both internal and external medicine.

The provenance is especially striking. Each volume bears the bold armorial bookplate of Francis Henry Egerton, whose grandiloquent style as “Prince of the Holy Roman Empire” gives the set an unusually colourful English association.

Egerton was one of those fascinating aristocratic eccentrics whose libraries often reveal a taste for unusual and learned Continental material.

Chiarugi is best remembered today for his pioneering work in the reform of psychiatry and institutional care in Italy, and his writings occupy an important place in the transition from older humoral and descriptive medical traditions toward more modern clinical thinking. La fisica dell’uomo reflects that broader intellectual ambition, presenting medicine as a systematic science of the human body and its functions.

The present offering comprises the first two volumes only of the work, both published in 1811; a third volume followed in 1812 and is not present here.

Particularly appealing is the inscription to the half-title of Volume I, “de la part de l’auteur”, indicating that this was presented by Chiarugi himself.

Notes

The books also retain their uncut pages, a particularly pleasing feature for collectors, giving the set a distinctly fresh and untouched feel internally despite the external wear.

A scarce and intellectually attractive medical work, made far more desirable by its authorial presentation, eccentric aristocratic provenance, and untouched internal state.