Biathanatos (one of the earliest Western works on suicide)
By Donne, John
First edition, first issue, with the leaves of "Authors cited in this booke." Contemporary full calf with the initial blank (generally found missing), a well done rebacking, rubbed along the hinges, title page browned, the other pages only browned primarily at the margins. All in all a very good and more importantly complete copy. Ex-libris University of Cambridge**** "Biathanatos was written during a lengthy period of unemployment, during which Donne suffered from low spirits. In 1608, around the time that Biathanatos was originally composed, Donne wrote to his friend Henry Goodyer, 'Every Tuesday I make account that I turn a great hourglass, and consider that a week s life is run out since I writ. But if I ask myself what I have done in the last watch, or would do in the next, I can say nothing.' Although John Sym s Lifes Preservative Against Self-Killing (London, 1637) was published earlier, Biathanatos was the first book written in the Western tradition on the subject of suicide." (Cardiff)
Published by: John Dawson, London, 1644
Vendor: Anniroc Rare Books
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By Donne, John
First edition, first issue, with the leaves of "Authors cited in this booke." Contemporary full calf with the initial blank (generally found missing), a well done rebacking, rubbed along the hinges, title page browned, the other pages only browned primarily at the margins. All in all a very good and more importantly complete copy. Ex-libris University of Cambridge**** "Biathanatos was written during a lengthy period of unemployment, during which Donne suffered from low spirits. In 1608, around the time that Biathanatos was originally composed, Donne wrote to his friend Henry Goodyer, 'Every Tuesday I make account that I turn a great hourglass, and consider that a week s life is run out since I writ. But if I ask myself what I have done in the last watch, or would do in the next, I can say nothing.' Although John Sym s Lifes Preservative Against Self-Killing (London, 1637) was published earlier, Biathanatos was the first book written in the Western tradition on the subject of suicide." (Cardiff)
Published by: John Dawson, London, 1644
Vendor: Anniroc Rare Books
