Beschreibung:

BRILLAT-SAVARIN, Anthelme (1755-1826). Physiologie du gout, ou méditations de gastronomie transcendante , Paris: A. Sautelet, 1826. 2 volumes, 8° (195 x 123mm). Half titles. Brown half morocco by René Kiefer, flat spines lettered and decorated gilt, top edges gilt. FIRST EDITION of Brillat-Savarin's celebrated work on gastronomy. While employed as a lawyer and politician, Brillat-Savarin's true gifts were as a connoisseur at the table, famously declaring, "Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are!" His book is less a treatise on cuisine and more a witty compendium of gastronomic precepts meant to enhance the pleasures of eating. "As Maurice des Ombiaux has remarked, people seem to believe that Brillat-Savarin's recipes partook of the nature of divine revelations, whereas in reality Brillat-Savarin made no claims to being a practising cook, and his recipes, at least to modern readers, appear to be the weakest spots in his book ... Brillat-Savarin's great book ... became such a landmark in the history of modern gastronomy that it set, and is still setting, the pattern for hundreds of imitators" (Elizabeth David, French Provincial Cooking, London, 1960, p.45). Physiologie du Gout (The Physiology of Taste) was published on 8 December 1825, two months before the author's death, and the first 500 copies sold out immediately. Bitting, p.60; Vicaire, p.118. With 2 later editions of the same work, the 1864 Paris edition bound by Zaehnsdorf, and the 1879 Paris edition in 2 volumes bound in full red morocco by Charles de Samblanx in 1915. (5)