Milestones of Science Books

GLAUBER, Johann Rudolf.

Furni novi philosophici, sive descriptio artis destillatoriae novae; Nec non spirituum, oleorum, florum, aliorumque medicamentorum illius beneficio, animalibus & mineralibus... [Five parts and appendix bound in one] / De auri tinctura sive auro potabi vero.

Amsterdam: J. Jansson, 1651.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #003793

Two works in one volume. 8vo (156 x 92 mm). 67, [5]; 148, [4]; 55 [1]; 83, [5]; 54, [2]; 72 pp.; 22 pp., including all 4 blank leaves. Separate title page with printer's device to each part, 3 folding woodcut plates, woodcut illustrations (some full-page), woodcut initials. Bound in contemporary blind-ruled full calf, spine with gilt-lettered morocco label, some gilt tooling to board edges, original endpapers (rebacked, corners repaired, boards rubbed). Text and plates only very little browned, occasional minor spotting, short upper and inner margins, split to fold of second plate. In all a clean and crisp copy. ----

I. FIRST LATIN EDITION, rarely found complete with the appendix as here, of the author's most important work being the first comprehensive treatise on industrial chemistry outside metallurgy, and containing details of Glauber's improved distilling furnaces. It further contains Glauber's discoveries about mineral acids, sodium sulphate, chlorine compounds, nitrates and sulphates, benzene, phenol, chloroethyl, alkaloids and much more. Glauber makes all these announcements on the basis of the instructions for the construction of four 'philosophical' furnaces, at the same time describing the work that can be carried out with these furnaces (cf. Gugel 54). "This is certainly one of the most remarkable books on chemistry of the seventeenth century" (Ferguson).
II. FIRST LATIN EDITION (the first was in 1646 in German language according to Poggendorf). In this writing, Glauber teaches how to bring gold into an ingestible form. He recommends this invention as a medicine for all kinds of ailments and infirmities (see Gugel 55).
References: (I). Ferguson I, 323-4; Duveen p. 258; Wellcome III, p. 125; DSB V, p. 523; Cole 530c; Caillet 4573; Dawson 230; NLM/Krivatsy 4784; K.F. Gugel, Johann Rudolph Glauber Leben und Werk 1604 - 1670, Würzburg, 1955. (II.) Ferguson I, 323; Wellcome III, p. 122; Dorbon 1879. - Visit our website to see more images!

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