Alchimie - Lot n° 22

BALDUIN (Christian Adolph). Aurum Superius & Inferius Aurae Superioris & Inferioris Hermeticum. Amsterdam, Jansson, 1675. In-12 of [9] ff.-94 pp. Folding frontispiece and 2 folding plates out of text (tear without missing one). Missing the introductory f. A3 and pp. 95-96. Following: Phosphorus Hermeticus, sive Magnes Luminaris. [13] pp. Short treatise on the philosopher's stone, concerning the extraction of gold from the air by universal magnetism. Another edition was published the same year in Frankfurt by Frommann. "Small and very rare treatise on the Philosopher's Stone, with 3 out-of-text etchings." Caillet 662. (S. de Guaita 32.) In "La Table Générale des matières contenues dans les journaux des savans de l'édition de Paris depuis l'année 1665 (...) jusqu'en 1750 inclusment et l'extrait des jugements qu'on en a portés" (tome second), 1753, one can read: "Balduin ou Balduini (Christian-Adolphe) de l'Académie des Curieux de la nature de la Société Royale de Londres. This author has left us one of the most beautiful discoveries that have been made in our century, that of the Phosphors: he had the first knowledge of it in 1675 in a book entitled 'Aureum Aura', detailing his experiments that he made with his phosphors. His singular ink for writing on glass in erasable characters, although as transparent as glass (1682)".