BUONI, Thomasso

by Thomasso Buoni

£7,950 · Offered by Sokol Books

Extremely rare edition of this most interesting work translated by Samson Lennard (d. 1633), friend and companion to Sir Philip Sidney and prot ég é of Henry, Prince of Wales and William Herbert. This is a delightful and detailed analysis of all the human emotions; fear, anger, compassion, delight, hope, hate, sorrow, desire, despair , but above all, love and beauty: their causes, properties, offices, uses and endes . The work is entirely free from lengthy quotations from antique authors, or obscure criticisms of earlier works, which make indigestible so many speculative writings of the period; rather it is a fresh and original exercise in human observation and common sense. Tommaso Buoni, Thomas Wright, and Robert Burton all conceptualize passions, affections, desires, and urges as biological responses that are determined by the humoral elements. However, none of these writers (not even Burton who frequently celebrates men who allow themselves to indulge in their impulses) allow for man to use their natural humor as an excuse for poor behavior. Reason, the knowing, moral, immaterial essence, should guide the passions. In his pamphlet, Problemes of Beauty, Love, and all Humane Affections, originally published in 1605, Italian anthologist Tommaso Buoni phrases the (question of nobility) differently. His section On Beauty contains the subsection titled: Why do Princes and women of honorable birth prove for the most part fairer both in body and mind, then women of baser conditio

• Binding: Hardcover

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