The Anatomie of Humors by GRAHAME, Simion - 1609

Edinburgh: Thomas Finlason, 1609. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. Woodcut headpiece on title, text within decorative woodcut borders. Tipped in before the title is a leaf with 2 pages of nineteenth-century manuscript dealing with the history of this book. Title lightly browned, but a handsome copy in nineteenth-century russia, rebacked, gilt edges; preserved in a half-calf clamshell box. From the libraries of Charles Tennant, Henry Cunliffe and Abel Berland with their bookplates. First edition of the original printed treatise, exceedingly rare, with no known copies. This work, consisting of prose interspersed with verse, describes the melancholy or humors of man. Like so many other writers on the subject, including Bright and Burton, Grahame's inducement was due in great part to his own experiences with depression and melancholy. It is interesting to note that many historians feel that this book was the major source of inspiration and indeed the original suggestion for Burton's Anatomy of melancholy, which is considered the greatest medical treatise ever written by a layperson. Grahame (1570-1614) was born in Edinburgh. He is described as a traveler, soldier, courtier, and a great scholar who spent some time in exile on the continent (under unknown circumstances) where he wrote this work. According to the Dictionary of National Biography, Grahame was" licentious, and given over to all manner of debordings, but was an acute observer on human character and in lessons of practical wisdom." He spent his last years as an austere Franciscan, indicating that he had possibly struggled with spiritual, in addition to physical conflicts, much like Burton.Only one other known work of Grahame's is extant, a book of poetry entitled The passionate sparke of a relenting minde published in 1604. Both this and the Anatomie of humors were reprinted by the Bannatyne Club in 1830.