SCHWAERTZER, Sebaldus.

Chrysopoeia Schwaertzeriana. Das ist: Sebaldi Schwærtzers...Manuscripta, Von der Wahrhafften Bereitung des Philosophischen Steins...Nebst dem rechten zu solchen Manuscriptis gehörigen Schlüssel; Auch unterschiedlichen Abrissen der darzu dienlichen Ofen...

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Six folding engraved plates. Title printed in red & black. 8 p.l., 186, [4] pp. 8vo, attractive antique calf-backed speckled boards, spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. Hamburg: S. Heil, 1718. First edition and very rare; OCLC locates no copy in the U.S. Schwaertzer (d. 1598), was a German alchemist who performed many reputed transmutations of mercury into gold and silver. This is a notable work on the philosopher’s stone, edited from a 16th-century manuscript. “The biographical notes of Sebald, or Sebalt, Schwartzer, or Schwertzer...are imperfect, and do not quite tally with one another. According to the older accounts he was a German by birth, who, at quite an early age, engaged in alchemical pursuits and travelled far and wide to meet other alchemists and gather knowledge and experience and make display of his art... “The narrative, as given by Kunckel [the author of the Laboratorium Chymicum], states that in 1584 he [Schwaertzer] came from Italy, appeared at Dresden at the court of Saxony, and on St. Michael’s day delivered to the Elector Augustus an account of transmutation in a manuscript written by himself, and requested permission to demonstrate his ability by an experiment. On 5 May 1585, the experiment was performed, when three marks of mercury were transmuted into gold, and the elector gave the Countess of Hallach, who was present, a portion (3 loth) of the gold. When the elector died he is said to have left in the treasury seventeen million rixdollars, and it was believed by Kunckel and others that they were the product of nine months’ operations by Schwartzer, and to this sum the next Elector, Christian, added several millions in gold. At his death Duke Frederick William carried on the government as regent, and it was in consequence of his treatment of Schwartzer that the latter left Dresden and went to Prague, to the Emperor Rudolph.”–Ferguson, II, p. 350–(& see the long biographical sketch of Schwaertzer). Schwaertzer managed the Mansfeld copper-slate mines for the Elector at Dresden and the famous mines at Joachimsthal for Emperor Rudolph II at Prague. Fine copy. ❧ Ferguson, II, pp. 349-51–(the copy in the Young coll. has only three plates). Neville, II, p. 446–Schwaertzer “was highly regarded by Johann Kunckel...the book is very scarce.” The Neville copy also has only three plates.

• USD 2,950.00 > otras divisas
• nº de pedido: HillBibl-1374

• librero: Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller, Inc. (USA)