A Look Inside

The title page includes a long title and subtitle.  The end part is most indicative of the true subject of the book: “the inclinations, affections, motions, and desires of his mind inwardly.”  As with Burton’s Anatomy, this is a discussion of melancholy and the more psychological side of medicine.

On the left page is a note in Latin, describing that this work was converted by Thomas Newton.  What follows is some verse in Latin, though the author is not clear.  The initials G.C. sign off at the end, but this does not connect to any persons mentioned thus far.

On the right is the first chapter of the first book, with a similar form of the others in the collection so far.  It serves as a general introduction to the preservation of health and why such concerns are important.

The second book may seem a little odd, as it claims to focus on glass, particularly a looking glass.  However, as the first chapter is dealing with complexions, we can infer that Lemnius means to discuss how one can examine one self’s health through the visual cues that come from any change in appearance.

Melancholy crops up again in this chapter.  The common belief was that complexions served as tell-tale signs of the nature of the spirit.  Here, cold and dry on the outside equates a melancholic state on the inside.

Tables within these scientific texts serve as a great way to know what topics are discussed within the work without having to read through the whole thing.  Additionally, they can inform someone of what they might have missed in their reading.  They also serve as just a nice collection of terms associated with the early modern era and this discipline of natural science.