P. X.

Secreti medicinali. A collection of medical receipts: the first volume mainly in Italian, with a few entries in Latin; the second volume in Italian and Latin, with additions by other hands. Titles within a pen-drawn ornamental border. Vol. I is entitled 'Secreti medicinali'; Vol. II was apparently originally entitled 'Secreti di medicina', but some additions were written in, so that it now reads 'Experimentati/Secreti de Medicina/Raccolti/Per sanare molti mali e/conservare la Sanità'. A considerable part of this volume seems to be by the same hand as the first volume. Volume I is in four Books, and the compiler's initials are given in Receipt No. 77 of the first book: 'provato de me X.P.' and in the next entry: 'che io X.P. ho veduto l'efetti'. The date 1685 occurs on fol. 10 of Book II, and 1699 on fol. 28 of the last Book. Volume II is in two Books. The second has an engraved historiated title-page, with a blank space inscribed: 'Secreti di Medicina Anno' 1699. This book contains 533 numbered receipts. Facing No. 438 is a rough pen-drawing of a distilling apparatus: opposite No. 438 is an inserted printed broadside advertising 'Il vero Balsamo Aureo di Lorenno, chiamato Balsamo Divino' printed at Modena, but undated. This folio sheet has been cut down and folded. This remedy, and an 'Acqua Triacale' by the same Lorenno, are entered as Nos. 438 and 439 of the MS. The latest date in this volume is 1725, in the margin of Receipt No. 530.

1685-1725

2 volumes 2 vols. 4to. 20 × 15 cm., 22 × 16 cm. Original calf bindings, not uniform.

Purchased from Lier, Florence, 19 December 1928.

Pasted inside the upper cover in both volumes is the library label of [Marchese] Cesare [de] Campori [1814-1880], the Italian historian.

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).