strict regimen in his
diet, he recovered his health and vigour, which he preserved to an
extreme old age. At a very advanced stage of life he wrote the
following discourses, wherein he acquaints us with the irregularity
of his youth, his reformation of manners, and the hopes he
entertained of living a long time. Nor was he mistaken in his
expectation, for he resigned his last breath without any agony,
sitting in an elbow chair, being above an hundred years old. This
happened at Padua, the 26th of April, 1566. His lady, almost as
old as himself, survived him but a short time, and died an early
death. They were both interred in St. Anthony's church, without
pomp, pursuant to their testamentary directions.

These discourses, though written in Cornaro's old age, were penned
at different times, and published separately: The first, which he
wrote at the age of eighty-three, is intitled, A Treatise on a
Sober Life, in which he declares war against every kind of
intemperance; and his vigorous old age speaks in favour of his
precepts. The second treatise he composed at the age of eighty-six:
it contains farther encomiums on sobriety, and points out the means
of mending a bad constitution. He says, that he came into the
world with a choleric disposition, but that his temperate way of
life had enabled him to subdue it. The third, which he wrote at
the age of ninety-one, is intitled, An Earnest Exhortation to a
Sober Life; here he uses the strongest arguments to persuade
mankind to embrace a temperate life, as the means of attaining a
healthy and vigorous old age. The fourth and last, is a letter to
Barbaro, Patriarch of Aquileia, written at the age of ninety-five;
it contains a lively description of the healthy, vigour, and
perfect use of all his faculties, which he had the happiness of
enjoying at that advanced period of life.

This useful work was translated some years ago into English, under
the title of _Sure and certain methods of attaining a long and
healthy life_. The translator seems rather to have made use of a
French version than of the Italian original; he has likewise
omitted several passages of the Italian, and the whole is rather a
paraphrase than a translation. This has induced us to give the
public an exact and faithful version of that excellent performance,
from the Venice edition in 8vo, in the year 1620 [1]: and as a proof
of the merit and authenticity of the work, we beg leave to quote
Mr. Addison