CAIUS, Bernardinus

by Bernardinus Caius

£3,500 · Offered by Sokol Books

First edition of this rare and fascinating medico-philosophical treatise concerning diet and health. Bernardinus Caius (Bernardino Caio, Gaio or Gageo, fl. 1596-1612) was a learned physician and professor of medicine active in Venice and Padua. Specific details of his life are obscure, but he was a friend and correspondent of Galileo Galilei and Giovanni Francesco Sagredo (one of Galileo s closest friends). Caius appears several times in Galileo s correspondence: in a letter, he thanks Galileo for sending him a copy of his treatise on the solar spots. In another one, Caius discusses Galileo s health and diagnoses the famous astronomer with kidney stone disease, advising him on how to recover; it appears, however, that Galileo never replied to this letter, making up excuses, and Caius complained about this with Sagredo. Caius was also a quite prolific medical writer, author of treatises on vesicants and blood, and editor of a commentary by Bernardinus Paternus on Avicenna (1596). In De alimentis , Caius explores all aspects of alimentation and diet, particularly focusing on what are the correct eating habits in relation to the different human natures . This interesting work, which combines Aristotelian, Neoplatonic and Stoic philosophy with Hippocratic and Galenic medicine, aims at demonstrating that the right diet can help maintaining good health, but also cure illnesses restoring the body s balance. Caius begins presenting the universal principles of nature, from which vario

• Binding: Hardcover

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