Maimonides, Moses

De Regiminie vite quinque tractibus ad Sultanum inscriptis. [colophon:] Pavia: Bernaldiono Garaldi, 1517

Four parts in one volume, folio (12 x 8 1/4 in.; 305 x 210 mm). 120 leaves, foliated. Bound after: Giovanni Matteo Ferrari da Grado [1436–1472]. Consiliorum ... secundum viam Avicenne ordinatorum utile repertorium. And with: ?Raymond Lull. De Secretis nature libris duobus. Una cum precipuis consiliis quibusadam Blasii Astarii. Woodcut vignette on title-page, woodcut initials, gothic type in two columns; upper corners neatly repaired throughout, but with minor text loss in Maimonides (r6) and significant losses in Pseudo-Lull and Blasius Astarius (quires s–u), minor repairs to lower outer corners of first four leaves, some repairs to inner margins, not affecting text, light marginal browning throughout. Contemporary limp vellum: rather age-darkened and worn. 

See A. Bar-Sela et al, "Moses Maimonides' Two Treatises on the Regimen of Health" in Transactions of the American Phillosophical Society, 54 (Philadelphia, 1964); Henri-Maxime Ferrari, Une chaire de médicine au XVe siècle; [Giammatteo Ferrari da Grado]; un professeur à l"Université de Pavie de 1432 à 1472 (Paris, 1899), items 13 and 15). 

De Regiminie vite quinque tractibus ad Sultanum inscriptis. [colophon:] Pavia: Bernaldiono Garaldi, 1517 Four parts in one volume, folio (12 x 8 1/4 in.; 305 x 210 mm). 120 leaves, foliated. Together with: Giovanni Matteo Ferrari da Grado [1436–1472]. Consiliorum ... secundum viam Avicenne ordinatorum utile repertorium. And with: ?Raymond Lull. De Secretis nature libris duobus. Una cum precipuis consiliis quibusadam Blasii Astarii. Woodcut vignette on title-page, woodcut initials, gothic type in two columns; upper corners neatly repaired throughout, but with minor text loss in Maimonides (r6) and significant losses in Pseudo-Lull and Blasius Astarius (quires s–u), minor repairs to lower outer corners of first four leaves, some repairs to inner margins, not affecting text, light marginal browning throughout. Contemporary limp vellum: rather age-darkened and worn.
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Third edition thus. Henri-Maxime Ferrari describes two earlier editions (Pavia, 1501 and Venice ,1514). Rare, only four (of which two imperfect) copies have been located, and no copy has appeared at auction. De regimine sanitatis was written in the 1190s as a private manual of health for Sultan Al-Afdal, the hedonistic son of Saladin.  It was translated from Arabic into Hebrew in 1244 by Moses ibn Tibbon, and was the principal source for the 1481 editio princeps. The first chapter is a brief abstract on diet derived mostly from Hippocrates and Galen. The second provides advice on hygiene, diet, and drugs in the absence of a physician. In the third, Maimonides stresses the importance of the relationship between physical and mental well-being. The final chapter summarizes his prescriptions regarding climate, domicile, occupation, bathing, sex, wine consumption, diet, and respiratory infections. 

The Consilia are a collection of practices or medical cases following the medieval theories ascribed to Avicenna. It is now well-accepted that Lull did not write De secretis naturae. Rather, the author of this large body of alchemical texts borrowed significant portions of an earlier work by John of Rupescissa—De consideratione quintae essentiae omnium rerum—a treatise linking alchemy with medicine by means of aqua vitae, a substance he claimed could prevent corruption and decay, and thus prevent illness and premature aging.