Brillat Savarin - La Physiologie du goût - 1847

BRILLAT-SAVARIN AND BERCHOUX. — PHYSIOLOGY OF TASTE (PARIS, CHARPENTIER, 1847).
Paris : Charpentier, 1847.
In-12. Period half-black morocco binding, spine with raised bands and ornament.
A very attractive edition published during the July Monarchy by the publisher Charpentier, known for his portable and elegant volumes that democratized the reading of the great Romantic classics in the mid-19th century.

A true monument of gourmand literature and the French art of living, Physiologie du Goût blends philosophical erudition, physiological meditations, culinary anecdotes, and precepts of dietary hygiene. The pairing in a single volume of Brillat-Savarin's work and Berchoux's poem constitutes the perfect condensation of Romantic gastronomic thought.

Good copy preserved in its period half-black morocco binding. Spine well preserved with neat gilding, minor signs of use and light rubbing at the edges and corners. Interior on period paper showing the usual scattered foxing typical of Charpentier editions from this period.

Published anonymously at the end of 1825 (dated 1826) in only 500 copies, Brillat-Savarin's treatise immediately became a literary phenomenon. The famous maxim at the bottom of the title — “Tell me what you eat, I will tell you what you are” — has become one of the most quoted aphorisms in the French language.

Beautiful copy