Beschreibung:

BRILLAT-SAVARIN, Anthelme (1755-1826). Physiologie du Gout, ou méditations de gastronomie transcendante . Paris: A. Sautelet, 1826. 2 volumes, 8 o (205 x 125 mm). (Some occasional pale spotting.) Contemporary French speckled calf, marbled edges (discreetly rebacked preserving original spine, front cover of volume two repaired); cloth folding case. 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 his death, and the first 500 copies sold out immediately. Bitting, p.60; Vicaire, p.118. For another title on cookery, see lot 295. (2)