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Two famous tracts by two of the most interesting scholars of the Middle Ages

LULLIUS, Raimundus.
De secretis naturae, sive quinta essentia libri duo. Hic accesserunt Alberti Magni De mineralibus & rebus metallicis libri quinque. Quae omnia solerti cura repurgata rerum naturae studiosis recens publicata sunt per Gualtherum H. Ryff.

With 8 woodcuts in the first part, showing an oven and various vessels.

Venice, Petrus Schoeffer, 1542. Small 8vo. Contemporary vellum. With 8 woodcuts in the first part, showing an oven and various vessels. 324, (6) pp.

Second edition edited by the celebrated Strassburg physician Walter Herman Ryff, of these two famous tracts by Raymond Lullius and Albertus Magnus, two of the most interesting scholars of the Middle Ages. Raymond Lull, famous alchemist and mystic, was born at Palma, on Majorca in Spain, in 1235, and martyred at Bongie in Africa in 1315. He was one of the most energetic and versatile characters of his time. In his youth he was a pleasure-loving courtier, if not a libertine, initiating by the composition of love verses the long series of poems and treatises in Catalan, which make him a prominent figure in the history of mediaeval Spanish literature. At the age of about 30 he underwent a conversion not unlike that of St. Francis and thenceforth devoted himself to learning and religion. The combination of learning and religion was characteristic of Lull as he tried not to distinguish between natural and supernatural. His main object became the conversion of the Muslims and the rescue of the Holy Sepulcher, so he studied oriental languages and Arabic philosophy, especially that of Averroes, which he tried to disprove. He teached at Majorca, Paris and Montpellier, but he was also active as a field missionary converting Saracens, going to Africa several times, where he eventually was stoned to death. He became the Saint of the Balear's but never was canonized. His main contribution to science was his logical machinery and his graphic method or 'art'.
The work by Albertus Magnus, here added to that of Lull, belongs to the authentic writings of this author, whose fame gave raise to many pseudo-works. Thorndike thoroughly analyses the present work, and points out the stress laid by the author on personal investigation and experiment. Albertus Magnus, Count of Bollstoedt, was born at Lauingen on the Donau in ca. 1193, and he died at Cologne in 1280. From the order of the Dominicans, he teached at Paris where he had a.o. Thomas Aquino among his pupils. He was Provincial of his order and bishop of Ratisbonne. He was a profound Cabbalist and a very learned chemist. The present work is fine produced by Peter Schoeffer's youngest son.

Fine copy.- (Last leaf with colophon not present; old owner's autograph on title crossed out; ms. entry of Lodovico Bernardij dated 1725 on recto of first endpaper).

Caillet 6858; Ferguson II, 54; on Lullius: cf. Thorndike II, pp. 862-73; on Albertus Magnus: cf. Thorndike II, pp. 517-92.

Related Subjects: 16th Century Alchemy Occult Science

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