Basilius Valentinus

Via veritatis ... von der Quinta Essentia und Oleo Metallorum. Sowohl aus deren Metallen als auch aus deren Mineralien deutlich und Klahr beschrieben. Wie auch darneben von vielen geheimen Arzneyen so ich auf meiner Wallfarth erhalten und auch richtig befunden habe. Beschrieben von mir St. Petri Closter. Anno Domini 1480. Illustrated with 11 crude water-colours symbolizing alchemical processes, and two pen-drawings of alchemical apparatus (fol. 16, fol. 91). Inserted are two engraved silhouette portraits of the head of Susanna Catharina von Klettenberg [1723-1774], the friend of Goethe, and various holograph notes on Basilius Valentinus, etc. by Heinrich Lemperts Senior [1816-1898], the art collector and bookseller, dated 1896, who has also written on a title-slip pasted on the spine, 'Goethe's Exemplar. Vgl. Ausg. d. Werken 1840. Bd. XXI s. 152-159'. Other notes by him are dated 1891. Written inside the lower cover 'Zeidlers Land Ministerium'. This is possibly Karl Sebastian Zeidler, Rathssekretar at Nüremberg [1719-1786], and not Johann Heinrich Zeidler [1706-1760] the compiler of the 'Universal Lexicon'.

c. 1750

1 volume 147 ff. first 2 and last bl.. 4to. 201/2 x 161/2 cm. Original boards.

Purchased 1908.

Database description transcribed from S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973).

Library stamp of the botanist Mathias Jacob Schleiden [1804-1881] on ff. 3, 4, 5. Inside the upper cover large library label of the 'Culturhistorische Sammlungen von H. Lempertz sen.'