Florida Corona, que ad Sanitatis Hominum Conservationem ac Longeuam Vitam Perducendam Sunt Pernecessaria Continens

Anthonius Gazius; Antonio Gazio

Lyon: Gilbertus de Villiers, 1514

4to, speckled pasteboard.  Title printed in red and black, with woodcut device.  [8], CLIX leaves.  Scattered contemporary marginalia.  First published in 1491 in Venice. 

Gazio was a professor of medicine in Padua and later personal physician to the King of Poland. In this, his most known work, he discusses   hygiene, health maintenance, and nutrition. A substantial amount of the work is devoted to food and drink (specifically the healthy aspects of wine drinking.) The Florida corona consists chiefly of rules for the preservation of health and contains little or no astrological medicine. ... It includes instructions for religious celibates whom it advises not even to read its preceding chapters on sexual intercourse - a caution that might have been better given before these chapters." (Lynn Thorndike, History of Magic and Experimental Medicine V, 170.) "Important traite de dietetique et d'hygiene d'un celebre medecin de Padoue qui connaissant et aimait le vin. Les chapitres 42 a 63 sont consacres au choix des aliments et des boissons. L'auteur consacre une importante partie de son ouvrage au vin, a l'art de boire, et a une étude approfondie de la soif humaine." (Simon, Biblotheca Bacchica 283). Vicaire, Bibliographie gastronomique 396. Provenance: From the library of Dr. Alfred M. Hellman (1880–1955), with his bookplate on front paste down.   Corona florida medicinae sive de conservatione sanitatis