pdf - Roger Gaskell Rare Books

Pagel’s notes on the endleaves conWrm the attribution to van Helmont: ‘Weigel
is the main source. Also suggestive of F. M. Van Helmont’s authorship is the
story (p. 27) from Trebbin in Mark Brandenburg where Helmont stayed at
the time’. He also notes Welling’s reprint of the work.
There is a copy of the 1700 edition in Cornell university Library’s witchcraft
collection, but the book is not noticed in Jean­Pierre Coumont, Demonology
and Witchcraft, an Annotated Bibliography (2004).
95
HELMONT, Jean Baptiste van (1577–1644)
Ortus medicinae. Id est, initia physicae inaudita. Progressus
medicinae novus, in morborum ultionem, ad vitam longam.
[bound, as issued, with:]
Opuscula medica inaudita. I. De lithiasi. II. De febribus. III. De
humoribus Galeni. IV. De peste. Editio secunda multo emendatior.
Amsterdam: apud Ludovicum Elzevirium, 1648.
4to: Ortus medicinae: * –4 4
* 5* 2 A–5I4 , 422 leaves, pp. [36] 800 (i.e.
808, pp. 87–88 and 373–382 repeated and 540–1 and 543–4 omitted).
Engraved double portrait surrounded by coats of arms on * 5v. Woodcut
device on title, woodcut initials, a few small diagrams in the text.
Opuscula medica inaudita: A–P4 (blank P4); 2A–O4 P2 ; 3A–L4 , 162
leaves, pp. [8] 110; 115 [1]; 88. Woodcut device on title, woodcut
initials.
200 x 152mm. Portrait slightly smaller and probably inserted from another
copy. Light browning in second part but a good fresh and clean copy.
Binding: Contemporary vellum boards, green sprinkled edges. Split in
upper joint.
Provenance: Walter Pagel’s signature dated 1948.
First edition of the Ortus; Second edition of Opuscula (Wrst 1644); the
‘Index tractatum’ on 5*5–6 covers both parts. Wellcome III, p. 241;
Krivatsy 5447 and 5442; Garrison–Morton 665; Printing and the Mind
of Man 135; Neville I, p. 613.
This great work, ‘The Birth of Medicine’ may be considered as the Wrst work
on biochemistry. It is ‘our chief source for the discoveries of Helmont with
regard to the chemical nature of living processes’ (Printing and the Mind of
Man). It also contains many major contributions to chemistry, including that
for which van Helmont is best known, the discovery of gasses.
‘Helmont was one of the founders of biochemistry. He was the Wrst to
realize the physiological importance of ferments and gases, and indeed
invented the word “gas”. He introduced the gravimetric idea in the analysis
of urine. Helmont published very little during his life. The above work is a
collection of his writings, issued by his son, Franz Mercurius.’ (Garrison–
Morton 665).