pdf - Roger Gaskell Rare Books

93
HELMONT, Franciscus Mercurius van (1614–1699);
LEIBNIZ, Gottfried Wilhelm, Freiherr von (1646–1716)
Quaedam praemeditatae & consideratae cogitationes super
quatuor priora capita libri primi Moysis, Genesis nominati.
Amsterdam: prostant apud Henr. Wetstenium, 1697.
12mo: 4
* A–G8 H–I4 , 68 leaves, pp. [8] 115 (i.e. 127, last page misnumbered)
[1] (last page blank). Title in red and black. Printed on
two diVerent paper stocks.
154 x 89mm.
Binding: Contemporary half calf over sprinkled boards, gilt spine,
marbled pastedowns.
First edition. A German translation was printed in 1698. Ravier 284;
Neu 1889.
Van Helmont’s last work, edited and possibly in fact ghost­written by Leibniz.
‘In 1696 van Helmont visited Hanover and revived two old friendships – one
with the Electress Sophia, whose father, the elector of the Palatine, he had
once served, and the other with the philosopher G. W. Leibniz. He persuaded
Leibniz to draft and see to the publication of the Quaedam praemeditatae &
consideratae cogitationes super quatuor priora capita libri primi Moysis (1697),
a work that largely expounds van Helmont’s cabbalistic reXections on the
creation.’ (Stuart Brown in ODNB.)
Pagel has noted on an inserted slip that the book contains alchemical
passages, for example on p. 62.
94
HELMONT, Franciscus Mercurius van (1614–1699)
Curiose Erwegung der Worte Moysis Gen. VI, 2.
[Germany]: Anno, 1699.
12mo: A–B12 , 24 leaves, pp. 48. The passage from Genesis VI, 2
on the titlepage is in Hebrew and German. The text is in German
interspersed with Hebrew and Greek.
140 x 90mm, untrimmed.
Binding: Nicely bound in recent sprinkled sheep.
Provenance: Signature ‘Dr Ferber [?] Hamburg 1878’ on verso of title;
Ernst Darmstaedter (1877–1938), historian of science with his stamp
on verso of title; the bulk of Darmstaedter’s library was acquired by
the Wellcome Library in 1930. Walter Pagel’s signature on free endleaf
and his pencil notes on the attribution of the book to van Helmont.
First edition? Another edition with spelling Mosis in place of Moysis on
the titlepage and the place of printing given as Amsterdam is dated
1700; reprinted in Georg Welling, Opus mago-cabbalisticum (1784).
VD17 14:670813R.