MELANTONE, Filippo (1497-1560) - De Anima. Lyon: Sebastiano Grifo, 1542. Copy enriched with interesting annotations by a penitent friar who dates the ownership note on the title page to 9 July 1573. Melanchthon, protagonist of the Protestant reform alongside Luther and Calvin, published the work De Anima for the first time in 1540 in Strasbourg. The book is based on the homonymous work of Aristotle and is remembered as one of the first treatises in which the mind, or spirit, is considered worthy of scientific study; it was in fact Melanchthon who coined the word "psychology" and the work does not concern only the mind, but deals in general with human physiology, the senses, moods and various abstract ideas, immortality, free will, the intellect etc. Of particular interest is the fact that the work was still in circulation in 1573 and that it was studied in depth and annotated by the penitent friar. 8vo (161 x 116mm). Printer's device on title and at end (small repair to lower inner margin, some browning). 18th-19th-century speckled calf, title on red label on spine, gilt edges (some rubbing). Provenance: early annotations - small photographic portrait as exlibris.

Estimate € 300 - 500

Sold € 2,200