De subtilitate libri XXI. Paris, Michel Fezandat & Robert Granjon, 1550. In-8, antique overlapping vellum, modern laces (modern binding).
Rare Parisian edition of De subtilitate by Jérôme Cardan (1501-1576), a great scholar of the Italian Renaissance and one of the first disciples of Paracelsus.
The work, originally published in Nuremberg the same year, was an immediate success and provoked a violent polemic with Scaliger. A sort of scientific encyclopaedia, it covers the knowledge of the 16th century and deals with various subjects such as angels and demons, encrypted writings, putrefaction, alchemy, metals and minerals, hydraulics, etc.
Ex-libris of the period: Exlibris petri oestenani (?) et amicorum.
From the Lucien d'Ursin Library in Antwerp (modern ex-libris).
Bottom corner of the last 2 leaves restored, more or less important wetness on several leaves. Roughly restored binding, spine redone.
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