GLAUBER, Johann Rudolf.
La description des nouveaux fourneaux philosophiques, ou art distillatoire.
Paris, chez Thomas Jolly, 1659£4,500.00
FIRST EDITION thus. 8vo. pp. (xxxvi) 71 (i). (ii) 174. (ii) 74. 92. 53 (i). 61 (i). Roman letter. Six parts in one, divisional t-ps. Eight engraved plates, three folding, the first with 2 contemp. slips of paper pasted over text, the third with tape repairs to folds, good, strong impressions, contemp. binder’s notes. Woodcut initials, woodcut and typographical head- and tailpieces. Last few quires with light waterstain to blank outer margin, a very good, unsophisticated copy in contemp. mottled calf, spine gilt, a bit rubbed.
Rare first French edition of this rich compendium of alchemical processes and their medical uses by the German alchemist Johann Rudolf Glauber’s (1604-70), illustrated with his inventions of furnaces for distillation, mineral baths and the separation and refining of metals, first published 1646-49 in Latin.
The book describes five different models of furnaces designed by Glauber, followed by a volume of annotations to the fifth part. The first volume includes a description of glass vessels and the process by which they can be used with the first furnace for the distillation of essential oils and liquors. Glauber then outlines the many botanical and mineral oils, etc., that one can distil, along with their medical benefits: a spirit made from paper or linen, for example, can be used to treat gangrene. Other sections include the production of ‘flowers’ or crystals from precious metals and minerals, the use of mercury to treat scabies and venereal diseases – elsewhere Glauber warns of the terrible dangers of ‘abusing’ mercury – and the use of spirit of salt in cuisine when cooking chicken, pigeon or veal, etc. The second furnace is used for producing acids, nitres and sulphurs, as well as distilling pearls, ‘crab’s eyes’, i.e. hard stones found in crayfish, etc. The third book gives an account of wooden cabinets with furnaces that can be used for bathing in mineral waters or brewing beer, etc., the illustrations showing a bearded man enclosed in the casement with only his head emerging from a small hole in the top.
The fourth volume is the one most clearly dedicated to alchemical sciences, beginning with an interesting and personal account of Glauber’s efforts developing his furnaces, including a breakdown in his mental and physical health, caused in part by the toxic substances used in his researches. Glauber also iterates his commitment to the medical applications of alchemy and describes this as the philosophy behind his inventions. He describes methods of separating metals, refining metals, making glass for mirrors and making metallic glasses. The fourth and fifth books also give extensive instructions for making Glauber’s furnaces, including which clay to use, as well as for the production and proper maintenance of crucibles and the glass vessels used for distillation, with several illustrations. The final part consists of annotations on the appendix to the fifth book, which is a list of ‘secrets’ or recipes for various concoctions and chemical processes, for example for making a sugar that resembles West Indian sugar; in each case, Glauber expands on a secret for the benefit of the ‘incredulous or ignorant’.
Not in USTC. Not in Ferguson, Alden or Heirs of Hippocrates. Osler 2755 (two parts only, wanting plate). NLM 4786. Wellcome III, p. 125. Brunet II.1624. Not in BM STC C17 Fr.In stock
