Dugonis - Scientia Bene Moriendi / de Contemnenda Morte - 1553

The three doors before death: acceptance, liberation, rule
First edition - The good death as an act of knowledge
Rare volume published in Basel in 1553, by Ioannes Oporinus. Not available in online catalogs.
It presents itself as a radical treatise on inner transformation: three texts, three steps, three ways of measuring life through the thought of death. The work also includes Xenocrates' translation of a 'Book on the contempt of death' and a brief writing by the author on 'health.' The text aims to make the science of dying very easy.
Johannes Dugo's 'La Scientia Bene Moriendi' reinterprets the ancient ars moriendi according to a fully humanistic sensibility, transforming dying into an exercise of the intellect, an art that does not fear finitude but explores it to order it. The 'De contemnenda morte,' attributed to Xenocrates and presented by Dugo in Latin, introduces the Platonic voice that frees from fear, restoring the event of death to its natural rank, free of superstition.
The De regimine sanitatis ultimately reconnects health and morality, demonstrating how a good death requires – above all – a life guarded, regulated, and conscious. The volume, enriched by the epigrams of Caspar Brusch, testifies to the point where ethics, philosophy, and medicine converge in reformed Basel.
In an esoteric key, the book is configured as a triadic itinerary: acceptance, liberation, and rule; three movements that lead from fear to knowledge and from knowledge to serene activity. It is a rare book, valuable for the history of humanism, for the history of Oporinian typography, and for any collection that investigates the relationship between mind, body, and destiny.
Market value
This first edition from 1553 published by Oporinus is rare and of high interest to collectors of moral texts, Platonic classics, and humanist medical treatises. Similar pamphlets from the Oporinus workshop, complete, in octavo, and with good quality back binding, can be valued between 1,500 and 3,500 euros. The increased rarity, the presence of three distinct texts, typographic quality, the final mark, and the marginal intervention of Caspar Brusch can raise the valuation to between 4,000 and 6,000 euros. Prestigious provenances such as the Rouvier de Vaulgran ex libris further increase its value.

Physical description and condition - collector's copy
Next binding in full leather, finely finished, very fresh inside, spine with nerves and a red Moroccan leather inlay; blue edges. Provenance: ex libris Rouvier de Vaulgran, a mark of high-level collecting. Light-colored and solid pages, perfect binding, without signs of wear. Pp. (2); 200; (2).

Full title and author
On the knowledge of dying well, the book. Also, Xenocrates, the philosopher of Plato, the book on contempt for death / translated by the same Philo. An addition is a brief writing by the same author, on the regulation of health.
Basel, by Johann Oporinus [without date, circa 1553].
Ioannes Dugonis

Context and Significance
This Basilean volume from 1553, a very rare original edition published by Ioannes Oporinus, gathers three texts linked by a single thematic thread: death as knowledge, the body as measure, life as an exercise in discernment. It first features Johannes Philonius Dugo's Scientia Bene Moriendi, a treatise that revisits the tradition of ars moriendi, renewing it according to humanist sensibilities: dying well becomes an intellectual act, a regulated and conscious process. Next is the Latin version of De contemnenda morte by Xenocrates, a Platonic philosopher, proposed by Dugo himself; a text that encourages viewing death as a natural phenomenon, liberated from fear and superstition. The volume concludes with a short treatise De regimine sanitatis, also attributed to Dugo, which links a good death to a good life through a code of mental and physical hygiene. The book, enriched with liminal compositions by humanist Caspar Brusch, close to Melanchthon, testifies to the point where morality, philosophy, and medicine intersect in Reformed Basel. In a symbolic-esoteric key, the work appears as a threefold journey: preparation for death, liberation from fear, safeguarding health. Three levels of reading that outline a path of inner transformation. It is a rare specimen, of strong historical, philosophical, and collector’s interest.

The combination of three texts into a single volume testifies to the thematic breadth of late Renaissance humanism: death as a moral concept, as a philosophical problem, and as a medical phenomenon. Dugo's main work renews the ars moriendi by transforming it into a doctrine of discernment: dying well means evaluating, ordering, purifying. The presence of Xenocrates' De contemnenda morte introduces Platonism as a tool for liberation from fear. Finally, De regimine sanitatis establishes the link between bodily balance and spiritual balance.
In esoteric terms, the volume proposes three initiation steps: acceptance, liberation, and order. Death is seen as a passage of knowledge; the body as a temple that must be guarded; philosophy as a practice of transformation. The work reflects the Basel typographic culture of the 16th century, at a time when Oporinus was publishing texts of great moral and intellectual intensity.

Biography of the Authors
Johannes Philonius Dugo: a minor and elusive figure in the 16th-century North European intellectual environment. Active as a moral author, translator, and interpreter of philosophical texts. His collaboration with Oporinus attests to his integration into the humanist educational circles of Basel.
Xenocrates: philosopher of the Platonic Academy (4th century BC), of which numerous pamphlets attributed or reworked circulated during the Renaissance.
Caspar Bruschius: a German humanist associated with Melantone, author of epigrams and liminary poems; his presence in the volume confers humanistic authority.

Printing history and circulation
The combination of three texts in the same volume is rare and characteristic of Oporinus's workshop, which liked to propose coherent collections under a common moral thread. There are no immediate reprints. Very limited circulation is probable.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
To be consulted
USTC for the Basel editions of 1553.
VD16 according to the German-Swiss typographic repertoire.
Oporinianum Catalog
WorldCat, KVK, ICCU.
Catalogs on Ars Moriendi, on the humanistic reception of Xenocrates, and on the minor moral treatises of the 16th century.