L'Uomo. Trattato fisico morale del Marchese Giuseppe Gorini Corio. Diviso in tre libri. Primo libro: l’esser dell’uomo. Secondo libro: le passioni dell’uomo. Terzo libro: i doveri dell’uomo. Lucca, ‘presso A.R.’, 1756.
First Edition. 4to (250 x 195 mm), pp. [ii] additional engraved title, 168, 159-480 [ie 490], with nine large part-page emblematic engraved vignettes as headpieces, woodcut initials and tail-pieces, some gathering and light spotting throughout with gathering H particuarly browned, some scattered marginal dampstaining, small tear on p. 97 with no loss, in contemporary full vellum, slightly worn and dusty, spine and edge of boards speckled in red, brown and green, flat spine with gilt tooling in compartments, gilt faded, yellow morocco label lettered in gilt, red edges.
The scarce first edition of a delightful attempt to reconcile biblical truths with modern enlightened philosophy, heavily influenced by the works of David Hartley. Presented in three books, addressing human existence, the passions and ethics. In the first section, human existence is divided into physical characteristics, the soul and the effects of original sin, in the second, the passions are deemed to include all human desires and temptations including love, ambition, the thirst for knowledge etc. In the final section, the author begins with a statement of the equality of man and goes on to discuss original sin and natural vices as well as more elevated things like art, culture, music and languages, as well as political power and the legal system.
Giuseppe Gorini Corio was a playwright and philosopher from Lombardy. His attempt to justify contemporary enlightened thought through the bible was sadly not met with the reaction he may have hoped for and this work was placed on the Index in 1759. Following this, a French translation appeared as L’anthropologie in 1761.
OCLC lists a handful of copies in Continental Europe and Oxford, Cambridge, UCLA and Chicago.