BASILIUS VALENTINUS.
Les douze clefs de philosophie... Traictant de la vraye medecine metalique. Plus l'Azoth, ou le moyen de faire l'or caché des philosophes. Traduction francoise.
Paris: Pierre Mo't, 1659.
[bound with:] BERNARDUS TREVISANUS. Traicté de la nature de l'oeuf des philosophes. Paris: [Pierre Mo't,] 1659.Three works in one vol., 8vo (168 × 100 mm.), pp. [ii], 176; 190; 64. First work (Douze Clefs) with full-page engraved illustration of a phoenix and other emblems plus an emblematic woodcut but without the engraved plates (the "keys") found in some copies. The second work (Azoth) with woodcut image to title and 14 alchemical vignettes. Woodcut ornaments. Minor waterstain affecting the first 30 leaves of the first work, occasional paper flaws with slight loss, not affecting text. Waterstain with resulting flaw to fore-edge of pp. 49-50 of final part resulting in slight loss of text, old repair with the few affected letters added in neat manuscript. Early manuscript Digby arms on paper slip pasted to verso of first title, later manuscript notes on Basilius Valentinus to an added endpaper. Contemporary calf, spine gilt, red morocco label. Repairs to joints, the binding previously treated or glazed.
A rare early edition of two of the most important alchemical texts by Basilius Valentinus, together with Bernardus' treatise on the philosopher's stone. First printed in Latin in 1599 Les douze clefs, together with Azoth, first appeared in French in 1624, translated by David Laigneau and published together. Traicté de la nature de l'oeuf des philosophes also first appeared in French that year and was probably intended as an accompaniment. The 1659 edition is important for having been dedicated by the publisher to the English natural philosopher Kenelm Digby, then resident in Paris studying Paracelsian chemistry and expounding the efficacy of his "powder of sympathy", a variant of the Paracelsian "weapon salve". Our copy bears Digby's arms in early (though not demonstrably contemporary) manuscript on a label pasted to the verso of the title. Some copies, though by no means all, of Les Douze Clefs contain an engraved suite of "keys". Ours, like the copy described by Ferguson, appears never to have had them and one suspects the existence of a preliminary issue before the keys were prepared.
Caillet 798, 802, 1043; Duveen 48; Ferguson I, 77 (also without plates).
£3000.00
US$5957.40*
* Given as a guide only. Based on an exchange rate of £1 = US$1.985799 for the day 25 July 2008 but liable to fluctuate.
25 July 2008