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.

    45/428 (page 29)
    and as it saved the practitioner the trouble of constantly referring to the great authorities, he, like Valescus de Taranta, called his book Vieni Meco^ Vade Mecum. He cannot therefore claim that title as original. The medicines employed are sometimes of a startling character—such as suffumigation by a dead man’s tooth, which must have been used for the occult virtues of the tooth or of its owner, rather than for any other reason. Extraordinary remedies, however, formed the rule, so long as physicians knew neither the physiology nor the pathology of the human economy. 26. Notwithstanding the way in which Fioravanti was denounced as a quack, his books maintained their circulation. In addition to those already shown and described, I have here some fresh copies to exhibit. One is a copy in Italian of his Secreti Rationali in five parts, printed at Venice in 1630. There is nothing noteworthy about the volume, except that it is in the chap-book style of the period. The other is the first edition of the French translation of the Miroir Vniversel dcs Arts et Sciences en General, . . . diuife en trois liures, by Gabriel Chappuys. It was printed in 1584 at Paris by Cavellat, who was also the printer of Cardan’s Livres de la Subtilit'e, mentioned above. It is an 8vo, and this copy has been much read and thumbed. Chappuys’ editions must have been popular, for I have never succeeded in meeting with any of them in good condition. The second edition, 1586, was mentioned in Part II., p. 251. Fioravanti’s Discourse upon Chirurgery went through several editions. The first edition of the English translation was printed at London by Thomas East in 1580, in small 4I0, and in black letter (Part V., p. 452). In addition to a copy of this first edition, I have got also a later one, edited by Richard Booth, Gent., and printed at London by Edward Allde in 1626. This is also a small 4to, 2 leaves, sigs. B to Q in fours, R in two, or pp. [4] 117 (misprint for 118) [6], and to this, as in the other, are added “most notable “ secrets found out by the said Authour.” The later edition differs from the earlier one by omitting Hester’s dedication to the Earl of Oxford and the coat of arms, Hester’s address to the reader, and Fioravanti’s address to the reader, and by inserting an address to the reader by Richard Booth. At the end is also added, in the second edition, “the making of certainc precious waters taken out of John Vigo, Chirurgion.’’