[Peter Romilly, Huguenot jeweller, father of Sir Samuel Romilly, and great-uncle of Peter Mark Roget, compiler of 'Roget's Thesaurus'] Unpublished manuscript translation by him into French of Luigi Cornaro’s ‘Discorsi’.

Alvise Cornaro (d.1566), usually known as Luigi Cornaro, published the four books of his celebrated ‘Discorsi’ between 1583 and 1595. For Peter Romilly, see his son Sir Samuel Romilly’s entry in the Oxford DNB, and also that of his grand-nephew P. M. Roget. Autograph manuscript of unpublished translation. [1] + 89pp, 12mo. Internally good and tight, on lightly-aged watermarked laid paper; in brown calf binding, rebacked. Front pastedown carries armorial bookplate of Peter Romilly (‘Persevere’) and ownership inscription of ‘P. M. Roget’. The text of the translation, neatly written in a close hand, is paginated 1-89, and preceded by a manuscript title-page laid out like a printed one: ‘Conseils et Moyens / Tres faciles & assûrez pour vivre / Plus de Cent Ans / Dans une parfaite santé / avec / La maniére de corriger un mauvais temperament, de jouir d[’]une felicité parfaite, jusquâ un âge for [sic] avancé, & de ne mourir que par la consommation de L’humide radical usé par une extréme vielless. [sic] / Traduit de L’Italien de Louis Cornaro, noble Venitien / A LONDRES / 1745 / P. Romilly’. Following the four discourse in this translation are: on pp.78-81, ‘Lettre D’une Religieuse de Padouë, Petite Niece de Louis Cornaro’; on pp.82-83, ‘Extrait du 38 livre des Histoires de Monsieur le President de Thou sur l’an 1566’; on pp.84-88, ‘Dialogue De Cardan, entre un Philosophe, un Citoien, & un Hermite, sur les moyens de Prolonger la vie & conserver la Santé’ (at end: ‘Si Cardan avoit lû les quatre Traité de la Sobriété que nous Raportons, il auroit Jugé plus Sainement des Ecrits de Cornaro.’); on pp.88-89, ‘Maximes pour prolonger la vie’.