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Two influential philosophical works by an acquaintance and admirer of Spinoza and Descartes and inventor of European porcelain
TSCHIRNHAUS, Ehrenfried Walther von.Medicina mentis, sive Tentamen genuinæ logicæ, in quâ differitur de methodo detegendi incognitas veritates.- IDEM. Medicina corporis, seu cognitationes admodum probabiles de conservandâ sanitate.      Amsterdam, Albertus Magnus, & Johannes Rieuwerts Junior, 1686-1687. 2 works in one vol. 4to. Contemporary vellum, title in ms. in ink on spine, two clasps. Half title, woodcut devices on each of the two titles, 4 engravings in text, several woodcut diagrams in text. (16), 224; (4), 59, (1) pp. First editions of two philosophical works on natural science, often bound together, by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus (1651-1708), a German mathematician, physicist, chemist, mineralogist and philosopher of the early Enlightenment. Von Tschirnhaus studied mathematics, philosophy, and medicine at the University of Leiden. During his travels he met Baruch de Spinoza and Christiaan Huygens in the Netherlands, Isaac Newton in England, and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in Paris, with whom he maintained a life-long correspondence. He became a member of the Académie Royale des Sciences in Paris. He also was in correspondence with the Dutch philosopher Spinoza elaborating on the freedom of will and other philosophical subjects and introduced Leibniz to Spinoza's philosophy and thus caused the meeting between the two philosophers. Tschirnhaus is also known for having unravelled the secret of the composition of Chinese porcelain, and inventing European porcelain, an invention that for a long time had been assigned to Johann Friedrich Böttger. He initiated systematic experiments, using mixtures of various silicates and earths at different temperatures to develop porcelain, which at that time was only available as a luxury import from China and Japan. Already in 1704 he showed 'porcelan' to Leibniz. In 1682 he worked out the theory of caustics by reflection, or, as they were usually called, catacaustics, and showed that they were rectifiable. This was the second case in which the envelope of a moving line was determined. The Tschirnhaus transformation, by which he removed certain intermediate terms from a given algebraic equation, is well-known; it was published in the Acta Eruditorum in 1683. Von Tschirnhaus also produced various types of lenses and mirrors, some of them are displayed in museums. In the present work Von Tschirnhaus elaborates and investigates the rational and mathematical grounds of philosophy and all natural phenomena, combining methods of deduction with empiricism and shows him to be philosophically connected to the Enlightenment. The Dutch translation 'Geneesmiddel der ziel end des lichaams', was published in 1687 by the same publisher. When Antony van Leeuwenhoek had read this translation he wrote to Tschirnhaus (in Dutch and apparently Thschirnhaus could read this language): "ik heb met groot playsier verscheyde uren besteet in het doorbladeren van UE. Hoog Edele geboore Heere sijn doorgeleert Boek dat de naam voert van Geneesmiddel der Ziele ..." (I have read with much pleasure for several hours in your very scholarly book ..). A second edition with the title Medicina mentis sive artis inveniendi praecepta generalia appeared in Leipzig in 1695. An German translation by Johannes Haussleiter, with mathematical annotations by Herbert Oettel and a biography by Rudolph Zaunick was published in Leipzig in 1963 (Acta historica Leopoldina, 1). Fine copies, with library stamp of ''Bibliotheca Canoniae Ducumburg'' on first title, and ms. owner's inscription on inside frontcover ''... Emericide, 1821''.
Cat. Magnus 1967 9; Waller 9702; Roller & Goodman, II, p. 514: Catalogus Boekerij 'Het Spinozahuis', 324 & 323: Smith, History of maths., I, p. 417: Cantor III, p. 107; DSB XIII, 479-481; Krivatsy 12003; BMN 1-146; Thijssen-Schoute, Nederlands Cartesianisme (1954), pp. 342, 374-81; S. Wollgast, Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus und die deutsche Frühaufklärung (Berlin 1988; Sitzungsberichte der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig. Philol.-hist. Kl., Bd. 128); E.W. v. Winter, Tschirnhaus (1651-1708): ein Leben im Dienste des Akademiegedankens (Berlin 1959; Sitzungsberichte der Deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. Kl. für Philosophie, Geschichte, Staats-, Rechts- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften, (1959), 1; C. Reinhardt, 'Tschirnhaus oder Böttger?: eine urkundliche Geschichte der Erfindung des Meissner Porzellans", in: Neues Lausitzisches Magazin, 88 (1912).
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