The Anatomy of Melancholy – Robert Burton – 1845 | Tegg Edition

The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton is one of the most famous works on the medical condition of melancholia, or clinical depression. Written under the pseudonym “Democritus Junior,” the text draws on thousands of classical sources and weaves them into a commentary on the human condition. Burton addresses cures and preventions but also the human emotions that accompany melancholy, both within the afflicted and those around them. Framed as a medical text, Burton’s work encompasses a wide range of topics including religion, digestion, goblins, and dancing, treating each with scholastic rigor and sardonic wit. This book also happened to be one of Samuel Johnson’s favorite books. He had been quoted as saying that, “[Melancholy] was the only book that ever took [me] out of bed two hours sooner that [I] wished to rise.” This 1845 edition is notable for including translated Classical citations and an account of Burton’s life.

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Anatomy of Melancholy, what it is, with all the kinds, causes, symptoms, prognostics, and several cures of it. In Three Partitions. With their several sections, members, and subsections, philosophically, medically, historically opened and cut up. By Democritus Junior. With a satirical preface, conducing to the following discourse. A New Edition, corrected, and enriched by translations of the numerous Classical extracts, by Democritus Minor. To which is prefixed an account of the author.
• Author: Robert Burton
• Publisher: London: Thomas Tegg
• Edition: New Edition, 1845
• Binding: Hardcover; brown cloth
• Format: Octavo (8vo), single volume
• Size: ~ 9.25in x 6in (23.5 cm x 15 cm)
• Collation: xviii, [2], 748
• Illustrations: Engraved frontispiece, plus engraving of original 1652 title page
• Contents Include:
  • Satirical Preface by Democritus Junior
  • Three partitions covering causes, symptoms, prognostics, and cures of melancholy
  • Topical excursions across moral philosophy, natural science, and speculative theology
• Provenance: Armorial bookplate of B. Jones-Bateman, Pentre Mawr, Motto: SPES NON FRACTA
• Reference(s): Jordan Smith 8; Garrison-Morton 4918.1

Condition:

Very Good. Binding is secure in original brown cloth, with light shelfwear to extremities. The spine and hinges remains intact. Internally complete with light age toning, and occasional foxing mostly along the margins. Text block clean and stable throughout.

Why Collect This?

• Encompasses literary satire, philosophical musing, and scientific thought in encyclopedic form
• A prime example of the influence of Renaissance humanism on Victorian sensibilities
• Collectors of medical, philosophical, or early psychological texts will find this especially noteworthy

Item Number: #31113