Beschreibung:

4°, circa 22 x 16 cm., 4 ff., 80 pp. - 106 pp., 3 (blank) ff. - 4 ff., 90 pp., 1 blank f.. Later vellum using an old French manuscript Collected edition with the three satirical works by Garzoni (1549-1589), all dealing with the deficiencies or extravagances of the human brain. - 1. Third edition (first 1589) of this collection of anecdotes and little stories showing human ignorance. Major sources were the Adagia by Erasmus and the Hieroglyphica by Valeriano Bolzani. Cf. Gamba, Novelle 116 and Papanti I 167. - 2. Curious and very original work about different kinds of brains and their peculiarities; first published in 1583 (cf. Gamba, Novelle 116 and Passano 217). Garzoni differentiates between calm brains (Plato, Aristoteles), courageous and pugnacious brains (Scipio, Ariosto), cheerful brains (Epicurus and Socrates) or astute brains (like Cicero). The collection is a precursor to Garzoni s Piazza universale. - 3. Important contribution to the discussion of insanity that Garzoni considers as a desease which must be cured and clearly separated from mental health. The crazy or excentric people he describes are locked away in a hospital where they are categorized by their symptoms among which there are also non-conformities or unorthodox believes. In his modern edition from 2001 Adelin Charkes Fiorato points out how Garzoni s view of mental disorder differs from its medieval reprensantation, when it was shown as ambivalent or the reverse of sanity with only a thin line separating the two. Here it is clearly something very different and far removed, those afflicted by folly are clearly deseased or even guilty. Cf. (first edition from 1586: Gamba, Novelle 116 and Papanti I 167. - First title with old stamps of a jesuit institution in Lyon, France and an old inscription with price from 1633. Small 19th century owner s inscription, minor browning, little staining but mostly quite clean.