ULSTADIUM, Philippum [Philippus Ulstadius].

Coelum Philosophorum, das ist: Heimligkeit der Natur:; Darinn nicht allein zu sehen, wie man auss Wein, Metallen, Früchte [n], Wurtzeln vnd Kräutern, u Quint. Essentiam künstlich aussziehen ... / durch Philippum Vlstadium, M.D. ; hiebevor in Truck geben ; jetzo aber auffs new ubersehen, und mit einem nutzlichen Register gezieret.

Strassburg / Strasbourg / Straßburg: Caspar Dietzeln und Christoffs von der Heyden, 1630. Hardcover. Small 8vo. [xvi] + 224 pp. a8 A-O8. Original blanks (not counted in collation) at front and rear. Later pig skin over boards, with paper title label. Fresh endpapers. Decorated head and tail pieces throughout, and numerous delightful woodcuts, mostly of alchemical-type apparatus. Text in German. Philip Ulstadt was a Nürnberg "patricius" who taught medicine at Freyburg "Medicus & philosophus egregius in Academia Friburgensi." His "Coelum philosophorum" was first published in 1528, and subsequently went through a number of editions. It is a treatise on distillation and on the uses of the substances derived from it in the medical and alchemical arts, and is apparently drawn heavily from the works of Joannes de Rupescissa, Ramón Lull, Arnaldus de Villanova and Albertus Magnus. According to Ferguson, the numerous woodcuts "of apparatus, retorts, flasks, receivers, furnaces, &c., &c., are identical with those in the folio editions of Geber, printed by Gruninger in the early part of the sixteenth century." (Ferguson Vol. II, p. 482.) Pages darkened with corners rounded, one small (match-head sized) hole in pp. 41/42 in the margin of illustrations on either side, with no loss save to a couple of letters. Top margin trimmed close to the running heads on a handful of leaves. Neat contemporary owner's name (?) across title page. A few lines of early manuscript notes on verso of final blank. A very good copy. Item #38764

Price: $975.00