THURNEISSER ZUM THURN, Leonhard (1530?-1596)

Magna alchymia dass ist ein Lehr und Unterweisung von den offenbaren und verborgenlichen Naturen, Arten und Eigenschafften, allerhandt wunderlicher Erdtgewechssen, als Ertzen, Metallen, Mineren Erdsäfften Schwefeln, Mercurien, Saltzen und Gesteinen.. Item Onomasticum und Interpretatio oder außführliche Erklerung Etliche frembde und ... unbekante Nomina, Verba... Gedruckt zu Cölln, Durch Johannem Gymnicum, im Einhorn. M. D. LXXX.VII [Part 2:]Melitsath [Hebrew] kai hermeneia [Greek] das ist ein Onomasticum und Interpretatio oder außführliche Erklerung .... Gedruckt zu Berlin durch Nicolaum Vo...

Cologne: Johann Gymnich and Berlin, Nikolaus Voltz, 1587.
Folio, 2 parts: *2 )(2 ()2 A--2Q2; 84leaves, pp. [12] 144 [12]; [pi]2 )(2 *2 A--2Z2 2a2, 94 leaves, pp. [12] 188. Plus 2 long folding woodcut and letterpress plates (c. 725 x 60mm), each made up of two leaves pasted together, and 6 double page tables. Gothic letter with quotations in a variety of scripts, titles printed in red and black, woodcut printer's device on first title, woodcut border to second title, woodcut decorations in the text and on the tables, woodcut illustrations, astrological charts and texts in large scripts. Leaf size and condition: 302 x 220mm. Second titlepage worn and with a marginal tear; single round wormhole at the foot of second part, mostly in the margins but straying into the text and affecting several letters. Some light foxing and a few minor stains but a good fresh copy. Binding: Eighteenth-century boards, red sprinkled edges. Worn, front free endleaf removed. Provenance and annotation: Bookplate of Philip Heinrich Boecler (1718--1759), professor of anatomy and surgery at Strasbourg (see Hirsch). Walter Pagel (1896-1983) signature dated 1956; B. E. J. Pagel (1930-2007). References: VD16 T1180. Sudhoff, 213. For the first issue see Duveen p. 579; Neu 4042, 4045; Wellcome 6302, 6301. For the first issue of part I alone see Ferguson II, p. 452 and Neville II, p. 553.
First edition, second issue. Both parts were originally issued at Berlin by Nikolaus Voltz in 1583; here the first part has a cancelled titlepage with Gymnich's Cologne imprint.
§ 'The Magna Alchymia is of a more practical character than the other works [of Thurneisser] and contains descriptions of preparations of sulphur, salts including sal urinae, mercury and its compounds, and metals, but includes a long section on astrology and horoscopes. In it there is mention of a 'herrliche Salz' from milk which may be milk sugar, but the text is so confused that nothing can be made of it... It has been said that milk sugar is first definitely mentioned by Fabritio Bartoletti in 1619, but he then merely repeats what is said by Thurneisser.' (Partington II, p. 155). The Melitsath is a Paracelsian dictionary with 'impressive examples of the printer's art ... incorporating Greek, Arabic, Syrian, Hebrew and Chaldean typefaces' (DSB).

• GBP 8,250.00 > Andere Währungen
• Bestellnummer: 19790

• Antiquariat: Roger Gaskell (GREAT BRITAIN)