The Nature of Man. A learned and usefull tract written in Greek by Nemesius, surnamed the philosopher; sometime Bishop of a city in Phoenicia, and one of the most ancient Fathers of the Church. Englished, and divided into sections, with briefs of their principall contents by Geo: Wither.

Bookseller Notes

First edition, first issue, of the poet George Wither's translation, the first translation into English. Wither dedicated the translation to John Selden. The Nature of Man is primarily a theological work (and it is this which interested Wither), but also, importantly, is concerned with the 'interpretation of Greek scientific knowledge of the human body from the standpoint of Christian doctrine... According to Nemesius' doctrine, all sensory perceptions were received in the anterior - now called lateral - ventricles of the brain... The middle or, as it is now called, third ventricle was the region of the faculty of intellect. This is the area that was responsible for controlling the "judging, approving, refuting, and assaying" of the sensory perceptions which are gathered in the lateral ventricles. The third faculty was that of memory, the storehouse of all sensory perceptions after they had been judged by the faculty of intellect... The idea of ventricular localisation of the mental faculties in the form presented by Nemesius was first attacked in 1521 by Berengario da Carpi... Vesalius delivered the coup de grace to the entire theory in 1543' (DSB).