Beschreibung:

BRIGHT, Timothy (ca. 1551-1615). A treatise of melancholie . London: Thomas Vautrollier, 1586. 8 o (143 x 93 mm). Collation: * 8 ** 4 A-O 8 (O8+1) P-S 8. 157 leaves (including cancellandum O8, and errata leaf S8). Woodcut printer's device on title. (Lower margin of title-page and following leaf renewed with some loss to a few letters of imprint on title, title soiled slightly, bottom edge of lower margins frayed slightly on preliminaries, a few other minor marginal flaws or slight repairs, some pale dampstaining, internal tear crossing text on A4.) Calf antique gilt by the Lakeside Bindery. FIRST EDITION OF "THE FIRST COMPREHENSIVE DESRIPTION OF DEPRESSION IN ENGLISH" (Garrison-Morton). Bright's work, the first treatise on mental illness by an English physician, distinguishes two types of depression: one proceeding "from the mindes apprehension" and requiring "cure of the minde," and the other of bodily origin, in which the melancholic humor "deluding the organical actions, abuseth the minde." Theology, however, played as much a role as science for Bright, and the cures for certain forms of melancholy required the influence of spiritual consolation. Bright's work directly influenced Robert Burton, and his name is listed in Anatomy of melancholy among the four authors who preceded him in this subject (Part I.Sec.I. Memb.I.Subs.3). Keynes convincingly suggests that Bright's work influenced both the language and thought of Shakespeare's Hamlet . A later issue was published the same year under the imprint of J. Windet (see STC 3748). Garrison-Morton 4918; Keynes, Bright pp. 9-13; STC 3747; Norman 343.