pdf - Roger Gaskell Rare Books

experiments: with certain excellent works of B. G. à Portu Aquitano.
Also Isaac Hollandus his Secrets concerning his vegetall and animall
work. With Quercetanus his Spagyrick antidotary for gun­shot.
London: printed by G. Dawson, and are to be sold by William Nealand, at
his shop at the sign of the Crown in Duck-lane, 1652.
4to: pA4 A–2A4 2B4 bb2 , 2C–3N4 3O4 , pp. [8] 16 [2] 180 (with several
internal errors of pagination); [2] 106; [10] 92 (i.e. 72, 69–88 omitted);
[12] 75 [1] (last page blank). Fleuron border to title, woodcut
headpieces and initials; subsidiary titlepages dated 1652 on 2B4, 2Q2
and 3C3 repeating the wording of the general title.
172 x 128mm. A small copy with several headlines and catchwords
shaved; title browned and dust soiled and Xeuron border cropped;
waterstained with some weakening of the paper.
Binding: Contemporary blind ruled calf, rebacked, new endleaves.
Corners worn.
Provenance: Contemporary inscription on titlepage, partially erased,
‘William [?] his book’ and another early signature ‘Farringdel’; a few
words of contemporary annotation on Z1; inscription on rear endleaf
about one Jacob who ‘commited one fault and a Material one’ on June
19, 1709 (I can’t decipher what the misdemeanour was); Liverpool
Medical Institution with library labels on endleaves and small stamp
on titlepage and several other pages.
First edition of this compendium, assembled by William Johnson
chieXy from translations by John Hester, Wrst printed in 1582, of
Del compendio de i secreti rationali (1564) and La cirurgia (1580). The
Thomason copy is annotated 1 October 1652: ESTC gives the date
as ‘1652 [i. e. 1651]’, it is not clear on what basis. Wing F953; ESTC
R211011; Wellcome III, p. 27; Krivatsy 4079; SudhoV 370; Norman
Library 797; Neville I, p. 456.
Fioravanti’s works were enormously popular and were regularly reprinted
in Italian, and English editions of several of his works had appeared around
1580 in translations by John Hester. These are important for introducing
Paracelsian chemical remedies to England – though not, Debus points out,
Paracelsian philosophy since Hester chose to translate only texts with recipes,
avoiding more theoretical works (Debus pp. 68–9).
Aside from the interest of bringing Fioravanti’s writings back into print 100
years after they were written, this edition provides a fascinating commentary
on the row between the College of Physicans and Nicholas Culpeper.
‘OYcially, the College’s response to [Culpeper’s translation of their
pharmacopoeia] was one of digniWed silence. unoYcially, dissecting knives
were drawn. William Johnson, the College’s chemist, wrote a vitriolic personal
attack added to the Wrst publication that came to hand, a translation of an
obscure medical work by the Italian physician Leonardo Fioravanti entitled
Three Exact Pieces. Giving Nicholas a taste of his own medicine, Johnson
accused him of being ignorant, arrogant, and even licentious... Johnson’s
attack was not openly endorsed by the College, but it was signed “From
Amen Corner”.’ (Woolley pp. 295–6.)