Paris, A. Sautelet et Cie, 1826.
2 volumes in 2 volumes octavo: I/ half-title, XIV pp. including the title page, reader’s note and aphorisms, and pp. 5 to 390; II/ 442 pp., some foxing. Bound in contemporary half sheep, smooth spines decorated with gilt fleurons and roulettes, black morocco title and volume labels, yellow edges. *Binding of the period*.
200 x 123 mm.
Original edition of the most important gastronomical treatise of the 19th century. Published anonymously, it was printed in only 500 copies at the expense of Brillat-Savarin.
Vicaire, Bibliographie gastronomique, 116-121; Vicaire, Manuel de l’amateur des livres du XIXe century, 926-928; Carteret, pp. 146 to 148.
Copy of the very first printing, clearly bearing the E in the word Bourse from the publisher’s address printed horizontally on the title page of the first volume.
“The original edition of this book is rare”, Carteret emphasizes in his Trésor du Bibliophile.
This original edition was published anonymously because the author felt that this publication was incompatible with the seriousness of his role as a magistrate. The following 27 editions were printed with the author’s name.
The book is a genuine encyclopedia: spirit, philosophy, humor, science, aphorisms, psychology, and above all, culinary chemistry, also known as cuisine.
This great gastronome had to leave France for Geneva, Lausanne, and New York during the French Revolution. Then he returned to France. Often dining out, it was as a joke that he composed this charming book on the physiology of taste.
“This work has become a classic at the table, undisputed, full of verve and good humor“. (Carteret)
The famous aphorisms help understand how the writer approaches his subject: “The fate of nations depends on how they eat” (III), “Tell me what you eat: I will tell you what you are” (IV), “Inviting someone means taking charge of their happiness while they are under our roof” (XX), …
“Its charm lies in the lighthearted way in which the various culinary questions are presented very skillfully and in the constant irony that lightens and aerates this little work. The reflections of the facetious author, on men and things, mingle with a continuous descriptive verve, which remains very precise and evocative: one goes from the “Theory of Frying” to digressions on the pleasures of the table, from the “Philosophical History of Cuisine” to the anecdotes of “Varieties”. The aphorisms, famous for their singularity, help understand how the writer deals with his subject and with what professorial tone he addresses the connoisseurs“. (Dictionnaire des Œuvres, V, p. 282).
“The reason for the swift success of “Physiology of Taste” is in the flavor of the style […] What mainly distinguishes Brillat’s work is the humor beneath the simplicity“.
(Biographie universelle, V, pp. 535 to 538).
Beautiful copy of this precious original gastronomic edition preserved in its bindings of the time.
