Titlepage of the edition printed in Leiden in 1635 (24°)
National Library, The Hague, 235 C 35.
Catalogus librorum (…) Petri de Graaf (…), p. 72, no. 147 (Medici & Philosophici in Duodecimo &)
This treatise discusses in dialectical form the great power that imagination exerts over the body as both a potential cause of and cure for diseases.
The first edition came out in 1608 in Leuven (in 8°). The USTC records an edition published in 1635 in Leiden (in 24°, no. 1027884), an edition published in London in 1657 in 12° (no. 3071836) and two lost editions in 12° printed in Amsterdam in 1658 (no. 1562811) and in 1678 (no. 1562129). Pieter’s auction catalogue entry doesn’t record the year and place of publication but given that this book is listed under the duodecimo and smaller formats, we can exclude it was the first edition. Most likely, the book mentioned in Pieter’s auction catalogue is the edition published in Leiden in 1635.
Titlepage of the edition printed in Leiden in 1635 (24°)
National Library, The Hague, 235 C 35.
From one of Pieter’s almanac entries, we learn that it was the Jewish doctor Isaac de Rocamora who advised Pieter to read this treatise on the 11th of January 1678, when Rocamora came to visit Jacoba who was suffering from abdominal pain. The image below shows the almanac entry where Pieter records the remedies (among which chamomile flowers, anise and Cream of Tartar) that the doctor Rocamora prescribed for Jacoba’s ailment. In the last section of the entry, Pieter noted: “dat ick behoorde te lesen seker Latyns tractaetge de viribus imaginationis, authore Fienio Professore Lovaniense” (‘That I ought to read a certain Latin treatise De Viribus Imaginationis, authore Fienio Professore Lovaniense’). We can therefore suppose that, according to Rocamora, Fienus’ treatise contained relevant insights to cure, or to better understand, Jacoba's ailment.
Browse through the edition printed in Leiden in 1635: National Library, The Hague, 235 C 35
Consult and download the annotated transcription of Pieter de Graeff's book auction catalogue here.
References and further reading:
Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2007, Vol.17, s.v. 'Rocamora, Isaac de', pp.357-357.
C. Piccoli, Pieter de Graeff (1638-1707) and his treffelyke bibliotheek (Brill, 2025).
L. J. Rather, ‘Thomas Fienus’ (1567-1631) Dialectical Investigation of the Imagination as Cause and Cure of Bodily Disease’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 41 (1967), pp. 340-367.
Written by Chiara Piccoli