Antonio Cocchi - Régime de Pythagore - 1762

Antonio Cocchi (1695–1758). Régime de Pythagore. The Hague, Paris, Gogué, Dessain, 1762, 138 pp. [Bound with] Nouvelle lettre au comte de Bute concernant la rupture de l'Angleterre avec l'Espagne. London, sn, 1762, 112 pp.

A volume in octavo (195 x 120 mm), full calf, flat gilt spine, leather title label, red edges (period binding). Small loss at the tail of the spine otherwise a fine binding. Interior fresh, without foxing.

Original French edition of this medical and dietary treatise by the Italian physician Antonio Cocchi, one of the foundational writings of vegetarianism.

In this book, Cocchi defends the principles of the Pythagorean regimen, that is, a vegetarian diet, drawing on anatomical, physiological and medical arguments. He asserts that man is neither an herbivore nor a carnivore but rather a frugivore by nature, i.e., suited to a diet mainly composed of fruits, vegetables and other plant foods. He explains that the structure of human dentition and digestion does not correspond to that of carnivores nor to that of ruminants, but is better adapted to a plant-based diet.

Cocchi develops the idea that plant foods are more suitable for human health than animal-origin foods. He relies on medical observations and the scientific knowledge of his time to promote the benefits of a meat-free regimen, both for disease prevention and for longevity. His work belongs to a Pythagorean tradition that advocates moderation, sobriety and a life in harmony with nature.

Attached is a short geopolitical text titled Nouvelle lettre au comte de Bute concernant la rupture de l'Angleterre avec l'Espagne. It is a political pamphlet published in the context of the Seven Years' War and the diplomatic tensions between Great Britain and Spain.

The work is addressed to John Stuart, third Earl of Bute, known in France as the Earl of Bute, then the prime minister of King George III. It concerns the break in relations between England and Spain in 1762, prompted notably by the Franco-Spanish alliance of the Family Compact and by the widening of the European conflict to the colonial empires.