Lume notturno overo Prattica di sogni.

Bookseller Notes

A good, clean, unsophisticated copy, in contemporary binding, of the scarce first edition of this obscure, pocketsize popular manual on the interpretation of dreams absent from major bibliographies.Of Cesare Merli (fl. c.1600) we only know that he came from Modena. Dedicated to Laura, daughter of Cesare d'Este, Duke of Modena, Lume notturno is written in an enjoyable style, clearly for a wide non-specialist readership. It purports to be only the second manual in Italian on the interpretation of dreams ever printed, the first being Grasso's Ragionamenti domestici sulla natura dei sogni (1613). Unlike its predecessors, it sought to eschew 'speculative' arguments, 'so alien to most people, who cannot understand high, speculative things', adjusting it 'to the abilities of the simplest minds'. It begins with a history of the interpretation of dreams, with mentions of authorities such as Ecclesiastes, Cicero, Galen, Philo Judaeus and Pico della Mirandola, introducing the key question - can dreams be trusted? - with unusual humour. It mentions historical anecdotes concerning the prophetic value of dreams, and numerous theories biblical and ancient on ways in which the soul may grasp the knowledge of the future through dreams. The following sections discuss demonic and divine dreams, dreams as signs of things future or past (even dreams of illness), whether animals dream, why humans may not, at what age humans start having dreams, the difference between dreams and apparitions, their connection to the soul, the physiological and environmental causes of dreams. A fascinating section on the causes of dreams provides a wonderful, accessible medical explanation of how images seen through the eyes reach the brain via the nerves.Only UPenn copy recorded in the US; none in the UK.