Gilly, David (1648-1711)

Tractatus in universam philosophiam, sive scientiam de homine. Illustrated by numerous pen-drawn diagrams and figures: one on p. 55 with volvelles. 'Ex libris Gilly' is inscribed on the verso of the first leaf, and he may be David Gilly [1648-1711], a French Protestant theologian who turned Roman Catholic after the Edict of Nantes in 1683. He was at the Protestant theological seminary at Saumur, and this MS. may have been written there. It can be approximately dated by the reference on p. 175 to the 'Discours sur les causes du débordement du Nil' by Marin Cureau de la Chambre [1594-1669], which was published in 1665, and the mention of [Pierre] Seguier, chancellor of France which follows. Seguier, who seems to be spoken of as still living, was born in 1588 and died in 1672. After p. 388 the script changes, but it was perhaps written by the same hand at a somewhat later date. Produced in Saumur?

c. 1670

1 volume 1 l. + 560 pp. + 12 ll. (last 5 bl.). 8vo. 15 × 11 cm. 18th cent. red morocco-gilt binding. A leaf (or leaves) has been cut out before the present first unpaginated leaf.

Purchased 1935.

Database description transcribed from S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973).