Barry, Sir Edward / [Provenance: Charles Robert Scott-Murray (British Conservative politician)].

Observations Historical, Critical and Medical On The Wines Of The Ancients. And the Analogy between them and Modern Wines. With General Observations on the Principles and Qualities of Water, and in Particular on Those of Bath [The City of Bath in Somerset]. Indagatio ipsa rerum tum maximarum tum etiam occultissimarum habet oblectationem. Si vero aliquid occuret quod verisimile videatur, humanissimacompletur animus volupate. CIC. in Lucullo. By Sir Edward Barry, Bart. Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and of the Royal Society.

First and only Edition. London, Printed for T.Cadell, in the Strand, 1775. Quarto (22.5 cm wide x 27 cm high). Pagination: Frontispice Engraving and Title Vignette by eminent english engraver, Isaac Taylor (1730-1807), XII, 479 pages, including an Appendix which is included in the pagination but focuses on an entirey of 58 pages on “Modern Wines” and their behaviours after being imported etc. Includes the Errata leaf to the rear. Original full calf with gilt lettering on spine. Front board cleanly detached. Bookblock in excellent, very clean condition and unusually wide margined for an 18th century Quarto. Provenance: This very rare publication by Cork City – born physician and MP, Sir Edward Barry, is known to be a pioneering study “in the scientific [and medical] analysis of wine, [it was] an influential work on the history of wine which ‘combined a good knowledge of classical literature, chemistry and worldly wisdom’ (Ó Raifeartaigh, 2)” (DIB). Provenance: The book has a fascinating history of provenance and belonged to two important libraries, manifested by two armorial bookplates, preserved on the pastedown and the endpaper. Provenance I: Charles Robert Scott-Murray (1818-1882) of Danesfield House in Medmenham, near Marlow, Buckinghamshire / Provenance II: The book was held until recently in one of the world’s most important collections on Wine and Oenology: The Library of Dr. Friedrich von Bassermann-Jordan (Bookplate present). The price of this book includes a repair or new binding to the liking of the buyer and also included is the creation of a Solander Box.

Includes the following chapters:

Chapter I:
″Of the general Nature and Principles of Wine″

Chapter II:
″Of the Wines of the Ancients″

Chapter III:
″On the Rules observed by the Ancients in making and preserving their
genuine Wines and in waht Manner they were adulterated″

[In this chapter Barry observes the poisoning of three men who had drunk white wine which had been fined down with Arsenic. Barry observes how two of the men died and Barry describes in detail the condition of the sole survivor and does so in perfect analytical mode by mentioning his death of “A Dropsy, owing to a total Dissolution and Acrimony of his humours, from his mineral poison. Mineral poisons of this kind are generally so violent as immediately to shew their effects in the stomach and bowels; and, unless soon discharged and corrected by emetics, lenient purgatives and soft plentiful diluents, excite a fatal inflammation and mortification; but how far in a less quantity they may more slowly affect the Blood and nervous system, can only be determined by future observations”.]

Chapter V [Printer Error: There is no chapter IV despite the pagination continuing]:
″On the Wine Cellars of the Ancients″

Chapter VI:
″Of the inspissated Wines″

Chapter VII:
″Of the Principal Wines of the Campania Faelix and other Parts of Italy″

Chapter VII [Printer Error: This Chapter has the wrong Numeration but pagination continues correctly]:
″Of the Principal Greek and Asiatic Wines″

Chapter VIII:
″On the previous Preparations of the Wines of the Ancients, by diluting them with hot Water and cooling them in Snow. The Structure and Use of the Thermopolium” [″The Thermopolium [Roman Restaurant] served hot food and mulled spiced wine (calida) from earthenware jars set in the counter” (Source: University of Chicago)]

Chapter IX:
″Of the Nature and different Qualities of Water″

Chapter X:
″On the Principles and Qualities of Bath Waters [Bath in Somerset]″

[Barry writes here in detail about the “sulphureous and ferugineous qualities of these Waters” and reflects on experiences his teacher Boerhaave made: “″Boerhaave is the first who has observed and clearly proved that there is in iron an inherent Principle of a distinct nature fro the other parts of iron”]

Chapter XI:
″On the convivial Entertainments of the Ancients″

Chapter XII:
″Of the Evening Suppers of the Greeks and Romans″

[″We find that the Greeks and Romans appropriated the succeeding hours, from six in the morning to that of supper to the public and private occupations of the day. Within that time, all business of the Courts and Senate was transacted, all visits of ceremony were made and all spectacles were exhibited”].

Chapter XIII:
″On the Medical Uses and Qualities of the Wines and Ancients″
[″Hippocrates seems designedly to have omitted enumerating among the former Wines, a particular Greek Wine, to which he ascribes some singular qualities…”]

Appendix on “Modern Wines”:
[″To drink Champaign Wines in the greatest perfection, the flask should be taken from the vault a quarter of an hour before it is drank, and immersed in ice-water, with the cork so loose in it, as is sufficient to give free passage to the air and yet prevent too great an evaporation of its spirituous parts”]

Sir Edward Barry is one of very few writers of the 18th century we encountered, who dedicated his book to his son. The pride and emotion of the dedication, printed on two pages between titlepage and Preface, is a rare and notable example of succession among the medical community in general. Sir Nathaniel Barry, recipient of his fathers heart-warming words, followed his father into the profession of medicine and “entered Trinity College in 1739 or 1740 and graduated with a BA in 1744 and MB in 1748. He subsequently studied in Reims and received the MD there. In October 1751, he was also awarded an MD from Trinity College. He was elected a Fellow of the College of Physicians in 1758, the same year that he married Catherine Jones in Cork. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the College in 1782.
He was jointly appointed with his father as Physician to the Forces in Ireland in 1749/50 aged only 25, and he retained this position to the end of his life. In 1749, he was also appointed the first King’s Professor of Chirurgery and Midwifery in Trinity College. (Source: RCPI)

Sir Edward Barry’s publication is not only an early scientific analysis into the medical benefits of wine and water but also a known study of imports, movements of wine within the european countries. On page 75 Barry writes for example:

″The fine Canary Wines were formerly imported into Great Britain and Ireland in large quantities on their Lees and in their genuine simplicity. It was then usual to drink them for a few days in that turbid state; on account of their delicate flavour and grateful pungency: but when fined down, were particularly esteemed for their racy taste and permanent qualities. These wines for some years have been very seldom imported and probably never in their genuine state, but are mixed with other wines of an inferior growth, to enhance their value”.

The publication by Barry is listed in many important works of reference: Vicaire 66f; Simon, Bibl. Vinaria 4; Simon, Bibl. Gastr. 168; Cagle 556; Blake 32.

Especially Andre Simon mentions the book in his respected work “Bibliotheca Vinaria”:

″The most interesting part of Barry´s book is the Appendix, in which are some remarks on modern wines and on viticulture in England”

Biography on Sir Edward Barry:

Barry, Sir Edward (1696–1776), physician and MP, was born in Cork city, second son among seven children of Edward Barry, MD, and Jane Barry of Cork. He graduated BA at TCD (1717) and MD at Leiden (1719), where he studied under the famous Dutch physician Hermann Boerhaave. On his return to Ireland he practised medicine at Orrery Quay, Cork, and contributed to the Edinburgh Medical Essays. He was made a freeman of Cork (6 July 1731). In 1732 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He moved to Dublin in 1739, graduated MD at TCD (1740), and was admitted a fellow of the King and Queen’s College of Physicians (1740); he was elected its president in 1749. In April 1744 he was a founder of the Physico-Historical Society of Ireland, established to inquire into ‘the ancient and present state’ of Ireland, and became one of its most active members and vice-president; he was also a member of its offshoot, the Medico-Philosophical Society. He held many positions, including physician general to the forces in Ireland (1745–76), regius professor of physic at TCD (1754), governor of the Foundling Hospital and Workhouse (1769–76), commissioner of James’s Street Infirmary (1760–73), and governor of St Patrick’s Hospital (1743, 1769). He resided on College Green, and in 1751 commissioned the building of Mespil House, one of Dublin’s finest Georgian houses.

Elected to the Irish house of commons for Charleville, Co. Cork (1744–60), he often voted independently, despite holding several government positions. He resigned his professorship at TCD and fellowship of the College of Physicians and left Ireland in the late 1750s, possibly over a dispute concerning the conferral of a degree on Sir Fielding Ould (qv), master of the Rotunda hospital. Incorporated MD at Oxford 20 November 1759, he practised in London and became physician to the Holland family. In 1759 Lady Caroline Fox praised Barry’s abilities and claimed that he had a great reputation in London; Samuel Johnson, on the other hand observed that he ‘brought his reputation with him but had not great success’ (Boswell, ii, 23) He became a fellow of the College of Physicians of London (1761) and a censor of the college (1763). He bought the estate of Dundeedy, near Macroom, Co. Cork, and was created a baronet 1 August 1775.

Among his published works were On consumption of the lungs (Dublin, 1726) and On the three different digestions and discharges of the human body (London, 1759). Among the innovations he introduced was the puncturing of tuberculous cavities to allow them to heal. A pioneer in the scientific analysis of wine, he published Observations . . . on the wines of the ancients (1775), an influential work on the history of wine which ‘combined a good knowledge of classical literature, chemistry and worldly wisdom’ (Ó Raifeartaigh, 2).

About 1770 he left London and settled in Bath, Somerset, where he died 25 March 1776. A portrait of Barry, attributed to Sir Joshua Reynolds, is held in TCD. He married first (c.1725) an unknown woman (d. 1741) with whom he had four sons and two daughters; and secondly (December 1746) Jane Dopping, daughter of Anthony Dopping (1695–1743), bishop of Ossory, with whom he had no children. He was succeeded as baronet by his eldest son, Nathaniel, who had joined him as state physician (1749–85). Nathaniel was professor of chirurgery and midwifery at TCD, president of the King and Queen’s College of Physicians (1767, 1776–85), and one of the leading physicians of his day. Another son, Robert (1731–93), a barrister, was MP for Charleville (1761–76) and a supporter of the Shannon interest in parliament. Edward’s daughter Anne married Gen. Sir John Irwin (qv), and his daughter Jane married the poet and dramatist Robert Jephson [Source: James Quinn for the Dictionary of irish Biography]

• Keywords: 18th century History of Wine · 18th century winemaking · Barry, Sir Edward (1696-1776) · Barry, Sir Edward (Cork City) · Food · Food and Drink – Rare · Food as Medicine · Histoire du Vin · Histoire du vin au 18e siècle · Histoire du vin dans l’Antiquité · History of Medicine · Irish Family History · Irish History – Rare · Irish History in the 18th century · Irish History of Medicine · Le vin comme médicament · Medical History · Medicine – Rare · Oenology · Önologie · Wine · Wine as Medicine · Wine in Antiquity · Winemaking
• Language: English
• Inventory Number: 31899AB

EUR 4.800,--