Bibliographical notes on histories of inventions and books of secrets.

  • John Ferguson
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Bibliographical notes on histories of inventions and books of secrets. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    use, or with other subjects which need not be particularised at present. Only this may be said, that the librarian who gets rid of edition n as of no further use, because he has got edition «+ i, knows neither his business nor his duty. Whatever view, however, be taken of this matter as to its intrinsic impor- tance, the fact remains that different editions of certain books do exist, and in the present case I have no alternative but to record as many of them as it has been possible for me to become acquainted with. My aim in these papers is not to ignore the wide circulation and active life of a treatise on the arts, or to suppress the fact of its numerous editions. It is just the reverse : to give the fullest account of it that is possible for me to do, to enumerate all the editions of as many works as I can inspect. The intention is to demon- strate the extent and amount of the early literature on the arts and sciences coming under a certain appellation, and thereby the wide diffusion of interest in these topics themselves. 4. The absence from the list of any notable number of quite new books of “ Secrets ” under any category, and the presence of editions of so many works already enumerated, indicates, I think, that my previous lists are fairly full in the matter of separate treatises, however far they may be from comprehending all editions. I have no doubt, however, that there are still collections of “ Secrets ” of medicine and the arts which have escaped me, but there cannot be so many as when I first took the subject up. Of some of the books, too, there are editions which I have not seen, even in large libraries, and which must, therefore, be of very rare occurrence. Some, even, of the books to be described now are of very great rarity indeed. Specially so is the first edition of the second part of the Treasure of Evonyinus, edited by Wulphius, for the copy described in this supplement is the only one I have come across in the last dozen years. Some of the editions of Polydore Vergil’s History of Inventors, of Alexis’ Secrets, some of the works on the Powder of Sympathy, the little tract of Andre le Fournier, and several others are extremely scarce and very fascinating on that account. They display the knowledge of the time; they give a clue to what were the topics of interest; the number of editions shows what authors were most appreciated, and were thought to have
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