Discourses on a Sober and Temperate Life: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Discourses on a Sober and Temperate Life, credited to Luigi Cornaro, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Discourses on a Sober and Temperate Life by Luigi Cornaro. (Translated by Unknown.) Read in English by Ted Perkins. Lewis Cornaro, also called Alvise or Luigi, was an Italian nobleman who lived during the 15th and 16th centuries. Discourses on a Sober and Temperate Life collects his four key writings on the importance of diet in sustaining health and long life. In it, he describes his youth of indulgent living, which lead to a great decline in his health and near death in middle age. Acting on doctors' advice, he then completely changed his habits, strictly limiting both eating and drinking. He explains how this change saved his life, gave him the strength to fight off illnesses, overcome physical injuries, and live a vibrant and fulfilling life into his eighties. (He claims to have reached his mid-nineties or more, but scholarship suggests this is exaggeration.) In addition to limiting food and drink intake, he emphasizes the importance of determining which particular foods and drinks best suit each individual. He argues that anyone can follow this strategy, citing examples of historical figures who have done. He advocates for the wisdom and pleasures of old age, asserting that life only improves with time and that to be old should be a goal, not something to fear. Indeed, he even argues that healthy living eliminates the fear of death, and facilitates a gentle and painless passing on to the next world.

Recording facts

• Recording title: Discourses on a Sober and Temperate Life
• Author credits: Luigi Cornaro
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 5
• Listed recording duration: 2:11:37

Catalogue topics

• health
• diet
• longevity
• moderation

Track guide

1. 01 - Preface — 6:08
2. 02 - A Treatise on a Sober Life — 1:03:53
3. 03 - A Compendium of a Sober Life — 24:21
4. 04 - An Earnest Exhortation — 20:13
5. 05 - Letter from Signor Lewis Cornaro, to the Right Reverend Barbaro, Patriarch Elect of Aquileia — 17:02

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.