Alchemy - PLANIS CAMPY (David de). Bouquet composed... Lot 47

Alchemy - PLANIS CAMPY (David de). Bouquet composed of the most beautiful chemical flowers, or Addition of the preparations and experiments of the rarest secrets, & Pharmaco-Chemical Medicines, taken from Minerals, Animals, & Vegetables. Paris, Pierre Billaine, 1629. Strong vol. in-12 of [15] ff.-1005-[2] pp. Without the engraved title. Etched portrait on verso of last leaf (privilege). Modern ivory vellum, gilt title on spine. A very rare treatise on spagyric medicine, illustrated with woodcut figures in the text, and divided into eleven "flowers": the first two concern chemistry, the last contains a dictionary of hermetic terms. One of the most curious books by the mysterious David de Planis Camby (1589-1644), adviser and surgeon to Louis XIII and the young Louis XIV. He was one of the most fervent disciples of Paracelsus, but the details of his life remain shrouded in great obscurity. He tried to harmonize the works of Hippocrates and Paracelsus, but for him only hermetic medicine could cure new and incurable diseases. This "bouquet" brings together a large number of iatrochemical and alchemical preparations taken from the plant, mineral and animal worlds. At the end, there is a dictionary of spagyric terms as well as a repertoire of alchemical symbols. Worm work and paper restorations from page 957. (Dorbon, 3680; cf. Caillet, 8721 which is an edition of 1624).