Work · Renaissance & Humanism
Three Books on Life
A medical and astrological guide to the health of scholars, including the use of natural and celestial influences, which was widely read in early modern Europe.
Introduction
“Three Books on Life” appeared in Florence in 1489. The first book, “On a Healthy Life”, addresses scholars, whom study and the influence of Saturn make prone to melancholy, and recommends diet, sleep, music and walks; the second, “On a Long Life”, deals with the health of the old. The third, “On Obtaining Life from the Heavens”, starts from a passage in Plotinus and explains how the spirit of the world can be drawn upon through plants, scents, music and images. Because of this book Ficino was suspected of magic and wrote an apology the same year, insisting on its natural and medical character. The work went through many editions into the 17th century. Klibansky, Panofsky and Saxl used its theory of melancholy to interpret Dürer’s “Melencolia I”, and Frances Yates read it as a source of Renaissance magic, a reading that remains disputed.
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