| OLOF EDLUND Antiquarian Bookseller STOCKHOLM |  |
| OLOF EDLUND Antiquarian Bookseller STOCKHOLM | |
| $ 2340 |
| First edition of Charles Vion d'Alibray's [ca. 1600-ca. 1655] translation of the first textbook on differential psychology; Juan Huarte's [1530-1591, or according to some sources ca. 1529-1588] Examen de ingenios para las ciencias (Baeza 1575) [The Tryal of Wits, Discovering the Great Differences of Wits Among Men and What Sort of Learning Suits Best with Each Genius]. Juan Huarte (y Navarro) studied medicine at the University of Huesca, Spain, and between 1566-1592, practiced medicine in several places in Baeza, Spain. "Huarte was a distinguished Spanish physician and psychologist. His Examen, which gained for him a European reputation, was the first attempt to show the connection between psychology and physiology"(G-M). He advocated ability testing and vocational counseling to assure an appropriate fit between a person and their occupation. Huarte cited humors, climate, the brain and other conditions as reasons for differences in human intelligence. He maintainedthat intelligence, and thus higher civilizations, could prosper only in moderate climates, an idea later endorsed by Herder. "The Spanish physician Juan Huarte de San Juan (about 1529 to 1588) produced in 1575 a book "Examen de Ingenios para las ciencias", which was published in Baeza and which, through the differential psychology developed by him, initiated in the impressing age of the rennaissance a new era of the history of psychology, which is called Huartism (psychologic physiology). Unfortunately his book, written in Spanish with 77 editions in all the important languages of the civilized world, became relatively little known. The following assertions are the object of his partially modern system which is based on the antique philosophers: 1) Man can have only a single talent - differentiated in a high degree and again there is a differentiation between individuals and nations. 2) It is necessary to choose a profession in accordance with the talent well in time. 3) In case of "lacking genius" the individual toils in vain with science. 4) Each talent is marked by a temperament which is corresponding to the physique of a person"(K. Dieckhofer, Juan Huarte of San Juan and his significance for differential psychology in Z Klin Psychol Psychother. 1978;26(3):207-14). |
| * Cf. G-M 4964. Nouvelle biographie générale, 25, cols. 333-5. |