Alchemy - 17th century manuscript The Revelator... Lot 43

Alchemy - 17th century manuscript The Revelator of the Great Secret of the Philosophers where the Disciples of Hermes and the Seekers of the Great Work will find very clearly explained all the things necessary for their work. The next page indicates the treatises contained in this book which I have separated into two volumes so that the volume was not so large. Geneva], [Samuel de Tournes], [1688]. In-8 of 354-[11] pp. blond basane, spine ribbed, gilt title on spine "Les Disciples d'Hermes", in slipcase with edges (modern binding). Some brown spotting to margins. Apparently unpublished early 18th century French translation of the work attributed to the Italian monk Antonius de Abbatia (c. 1350) published in Latin by Samuel de Tournes in 1688 under the title "Magni philosophorum arcani revelator". With a plate of instruments drawn in ink copying exactly the engraved plate of this edition. According to Ernest Bosc (Bibliographie générale des sciences occultes, n°93), this treatise had 3 editions (in Latin) in 1672, 1688 and 1702. Interesting provenance: a modern handwritten note copying the extract of the Journal des Savants of 1688 dedicated to this edition specifies: "it is the manuscript of Louis (Léo) Mérigot" (secretary of Oswald Wirth, friend and executor of the will of Count Pierre Vincenti, known as P.V. Piobb). "The Author of this work positively promises to reveal the secret of the great work which the ancient Philosophers have covered with mysterious darkness. Before he comes to the execution of the promise he advances as a constant thing that all metals are composed of sulphur & mercury united in one substanc. He does not mean common mercury but mercury which, being bound with sulphur by mineral heat, is converted into some perfect or imperfect metal (...)" Journal des Savants, 1688, p. 238.