De somniorum interpretatione.  Basel, Johann Froben, September, 1539.  (with:) GRATAROLI (Guglielmo). De memoria reparanda. Basel, Nicholas Episcopius, March, 1554.

£2,750 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

The extremely rare first edition of the first Latin translation of Artemidorus’ authoritative, and influential treatise on the interpretation of dreams. A figure of enduring importance in the history of thought and the subconscious, second-century divine Artemidorus was deemed an authority by both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. The Latin translation is by the Saxon humanist Janus Cornarius (1500-58). ‘The only dream book to survive from Antiquity’ (Price, p32), Artemidorus’ work is divided into five books. The first two - augmented by the third - ‘are organized systematically by subject matter, starting with dreams of being born, continuing with the body, public occupations and the gods, to dreams of death’ and are dedicated to Cassius Maximus, likely Greek philosopher Maximus of Tyre. The fourth is addressed by the author to his son and provides practical advice on successful dream interpretation, including advice on gaining the upper hand in debates with other dream interpreters; the fifth and final analyses just under 100 dreams, each numbered, said to have come true. Artemidorus engages in philosophical and theological debates about the nature of dreams and their interpretation - including passages on the role of sex and sexuality that would prove to be influential in twentieth-century psychoanalytical thought - though his primary interest was the capacity of dreams as predictions of the future, so-called oneiroi. Janine Riviere in Dreams in Early Modern England (2017) desc

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