"THE FIRST PSYCHIATRIC ENCYCLOPEDIA": BURTON'S ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY, 1638 FIFTH EDITION
BURTON, Robert. The Anatomy of Melancholy. What It Is, With All the Kinds, Causes, Symptomes, Prognostickes, & Severall Cures of It… By Democritus Junior. Oxford: Printed for Henry Cripps, 1638. Tall quarto, period-style full black morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spine and boards, red morocco spine label, marbled endpapers.
Desirable 1638 fifth edition of Burton's masterpiece, "one of the most popular books of the 17th century," with engraved allegorical title page. Beautifully bound.
"The first psychiatric encyclopedia" to be written in any language (Norman 381), helped to popularize what had previously been a mysterious and largely unexplored topic, the mental state that has come to be called depression. Burton elaborately divides the Anatomy into four main sections and numerous subsections, each of which deals with the causes, symptoms, and cures of various types of melancholy. "One of the most fascinating books in literature… There is a unique charm in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. Dr. Johnson said that it was the only book that ever took him out of bed two hours sooner than he intended to rise… On every page is the impress of a singularly deep and original genius" (DNB). "All the learning of the age as well as its humour… [is] there. It has something in common with Brant's Ship of Fools, Erasmus's Praise of Folly, and More's Utopia, and like all these it exercised a considerable influence on the thought of the time" (PMM 120). "The most frequently reprinted psychiatric text" (Hunter & McAlpine, 94). Bound with scarce half title. Without leaf Ll1, as usual, as this leaf was intended to be canceled and is only present (by mistake) in a few copies—text complete. Decorative woodcut headpieces and initials. First issued in small quarto in 1621. This, the 1638 edition, is the penultimate edition to contain Burton's own additions and corrections, as Burton died just prior to publication of the 1651-2 edition, the last to include his emendations. Grolier 100, 18. STC 4163.
Faint ink stain to bottom inch of title page, small marginal repairs to corner of rehinged half title; marginal paper repairs to a few other leaves throughout and to lower margin of dedication leaf; final leaf rehinged. Text generally clean, with a few leaves with light expert cleaning. Beautifully bound to period-style. A very good copy.