Delle origini della pazzia d’un filosofo fiorentino

[Florence]: s.n., 1770. ONLY EDITION. Engraved title, engraved initials, head- and tailpieces. Nineteenth century green sheep-backed marbled boards. In excellent condition, a wide-margined copy from the library of G.M. Nichols with his bookplate (which is signed by A.F. Drake and dated 1879), old bibliographic notes on the flyleaves. Only edition of this anonymous and hateful exposition on the nature of insanity. The author addresses his lengthy dedication epistle to one Brother Cipolla Tafino, professor of theology at the seminary in Arezzo, which mocks and disparages the professor as an arrogant and overrated letch on whom “fortunes fall like grated cheese on macaroni.” He asserts that Tafino is by every definition a madman, and he hopes that the following chapters will inform the professor’s opinion of himself and force a top-to-bottom change. The main text is divided into 45 chapters that describe the physical and behavioral characteristics of crazy people and recommend dietary changes to remedy mental illness.

Melzi II: 285; Blake 425.