| Search Antiqbook |
Ask a question or
Order this book
Browse our books
Search our books
Book dealer info
FERRAND, JACQUES (FL. 1620), Erotomania or a Treatise Discoursing of the Essence, Causes, Symptomes, Prognosticks, and Cure of Love, or Erotique Melancholy.
[Translated by Edmund Chilmead]. Oxford: Forrest, 1640. 1st Edition in English. [xl]+363+[1]pp. Contemporary sheep-covered boards, rebacked appropriately with a plain spine and new front endleaves. Lacking the final two blank leaves, title-page creased & reinforced on the verso; a few page tears repaired, small wormhole repaired at the top margin of signatures T-Y affecting one letter in the running title for a few leaves, rear board stabbed through in one spot with consequent puncture through the margin of about 30 leaves. An attractive copy in a contemporary binding. Title-page in red and black. First French edition published 1612 in Toulouse as Traite de l'essence et guerison de l'amour; 2nd edition Paris 1623 as De la maladie d'amour ou melancholie erotique. An Oxford scholar and musician, the translator, Edmund Chilmead (1610-1654), was appointed canon of Christ Church in 1632. Expelled in the 1640s, he moved to London and subsequently made his living as a translator, most notably of Campanella's Discourse Touching the Spanish Monarchy. STC 10829; Wellcome I 2219; Hunter & Macalpine p. 118; Semelaigne Les pionniers de la psychiatrie francaise I, 47-49; Jackson Melancholia and Depression From Hippocratic to Modern Times, pp. 359-360; George Mora, "Renaissance Conceptions and Treatments of Madness", p. 247 IN Wallace & Gach's History of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology (Springer, 2008); Zilboorg A History of Medical Psychology, pp. 269-270. Weight: 9.0 ounces = 256 grams. Size: 5.7 x 3.8 x 1.0 inches = 14.3 x 9.5 x 2.5cm. An important book in the history of psychiatry and the first use in English of the term "erotomania," which was not in the title of either French edition. Ferrand practiced medicine in the French town of Agen. In 1604 he treated a "young Schollar of that city, who was desperatly gone in love." The young man "could neither enjoy his sleep nor take delight in anything in the world." The entry of a young serving-maid into the room turned out to be "the meanes of discovering the true ground of his Disease. For she coming in at the instant I was feeling his pulse, I perceaved it suddenly vary its motion, and beat very unequally; he presently grew pale, and Blushed againe in a moment, and could hardly speake. At the last seeing himselfe as it were taken tardy, he plainely confest the true Cause of this, his distemper ..." [spelling & capitalization as in the original]. Described on pages 117-119, this is the first recorded case of a patient gaining insight through medical treatment. Writing with Galen's humoral categories in mind, Ferrand frequently appeals to classical authorities. Nonetheless, his own observations do have a way of creeping into his text. Ferrand applies the clinical method to medical afflictions produced by intense love, insisting on the importance of what we today call "insight." Though it seems obvious now, somebody had to do it first. Includes chapters on astrology; external & internal symptoms; various medical & pharmaceutical remedies for love melancholy; the diagnostic use of physiognomy & chiromancy, and of dream interpretation; "Whether Love-Melancholy be an Hereditary Disease;" "Whether or no, a Physitian may by his Art find out Love, without Confession of the Patient;" and "Of Melancholy, and its several Kinds." Stanley Jackson suggests in his discussion of Ferrand's book that the use of the term "erotomania" in contexts dealing with love-melancholy may stem from Chilmead's use of the term in the title of his translation. Though some scholars have suggested that Robert Burton significantly drew on Ferrand for his extensive discussion of "Love-Melancholy," Jackson thinks it likelier that both authors used the same sources. Burton did, however, own the 1623 French edition. Binding: HB.
Offered for US$ 3500.00 by: John Gach Books - Book number: 031727
See more books from our catalog: Psychiatry