[BURTON, Robert (1577-1640)]. The Anatomy of Melancholy, London, 1676, folio, half title, engraved pictorial title (some rust holes, spotting and staining to text), modern old-style full calf gilt. The Eighth Edition.

[BURTON, Robert (1577-1640)].  The Anatomy of Melancholy. What it is, With all the kinds, causes, symptomes, prognostickes, & several cures of it. In three Partitions, with their severall Sections, members & subjections, Philosophically, Medicinally, Historically, opened & cut up. By Democritus Junior. With a Satyricall Preface, Conducing to the following Discourse. The Eighth Edition, corrected and augmented by the Author. London: "Printed for Peter Parker at the Signe of the Legg & Starr in Cornhill over against ye Royall Exchange," 1676. Folio bound in 4s (310 x 195mm). Half title with "The Argument of the Frontispiece" on verso, engraved allegorical pictorial title [i.e. the "frontispiece"] incorporating a portrait of the author, the text printed in double column, woodcut headpieces, initials and ornaments, "An Alphabetical Table" and 2-pages of publisher's advertisements at the end (half title re-hinged and repaired with adhesive tape, title lightly browned and spotted, a few rust holes with slight loss of letters, head of Yy4 torn without loss, some light spotting, staining and mainly marginal browning, a few darker spots, a few marginal repairs, a few running titles shaved or cropped, verso of Ppp4 printed faintly). Modern old-style full calf gilt by Kirkby's of Chester, new endpapers. Provenance: "This book [?]sent in 1825 to Robert [illegible name] Surgeon was restored to me after his death ... Aug. 14, 1848" (partly illegible inscription on the half title, bleeding through to "The Argument of the Frontispiece" on the verso; old illegible signature on the same page; later pencil annotation and highlighting to some of the text. "[I]f ever a single book deserved to be called the work of a lifetime, it is this ... The Anatomy, as its publishing history shows, was one of the most popular books of the seventeenth century. All the learning of the age as well as its humour - and its pedantry - are there ... [I]t exercised a considerable influence on the thought of the time. Dr Johnson deeply admired it, and Charles Lamb's often and strongly expressed devotion served to rescue the Anatomy from a brief period of oblivion; its admirers will continue to read and re-read it" (PMM). Brunet I, 501: "Ouvrage singulier dont la première édition date de 1621 ..."; Garrison-Morton 4918.1 (citing the first edition of 1621, as with some other references); Heirs of Hippocrates 406; Jordan-Smith 8; Osler 4621; PMM 120; Wing B6184.