In physiognomica Aristotelis commentarii a Camillo Baldo ordinariam philosophiam in patrio Bononiensi archigymnasio profitente lucubrati. Opus multiplici doctrina refertum; physiologicis, medicis, virisque politicis æquè vtile, ac iucundum. Hieronymi Tamburini diligentia, & sumptibus nunc primum in lucem editum

Folio (297x206 mm). [16], 562, [20] pp. Collation: †⁶⁺² A-Z⁶ Aa-Zz⁶ Aaa⁶ a⁶ b⁴. Leaf Aaa6 is a blank. Engraved title page by Giovanni Battista Coriolano bearing the arms of the Gonzagas and the portrait of the dedicatee Ferdinando Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. Printer's device on last leaf verso. Later boards, inked title on lower edge (worn and rubbed). On title page ownership's notes of the monastery of San Maurizio in Mantua and of a certain Carlo Cantoni (1737). Worm tracks on several leaves often affecting the text, minor losses to title page, some staining, last quire a bit loose.

First edition. “But Baldi's most important work remains the commentary on the pseudo-Aristotelian treatise on physiognomy (In Physiognomica Aristotelis Commentarii), followed by actual research on the subject: De humanarum propensionum ex temperamento praenotionibus and De naturalibus ex unguium inspectione praesagiis. Nothing original, if we think that it was the time when practical philosophy was mixed up with theoretical medicine and vice versa, and research in this field was multiplying, from Ciro Spontone's metoposcopy to G. B. Della Porta's chirophysiography, to Prospero Aldorisio's gelotoscopy. What is important here is the entirely Aristotelian nature of Baldi's interest; but this is also obvious for someone who, in accordance with tradition, occupied the chair that had been of Pietro Pomponazzi. The passage from Aristotle's text to partial investigations on the subject was, moreover, a constant concern of his that he even managed to express in a speculative way” (M. Tronti, Baldi, Camillo, in: “Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani”, V, 1963, s.v.)

Krivatsy, 615; Wellcome, I, 650; Thorndike, VIII, p. 451.

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