Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The first history of chemistry / by John Ferguson. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
11/18 (page 11)
![ad quasstionem An Alcheniia sit ars legitiina. Ob argumenti, tracta- tionis metkodiq ; similitudinem coniunctim in gratiam Pkilockemis- tarum editi. Montisbeligardi, Apud Iacobvm Foillet, M. DC. I. Small 8vo, pp. 51 ; [6] 67. 6. 1602. There is another Montbeliard edition of this year. The title-page and the book througkout are identical witk tkat publisked by Jacques Foillet in 1601, except tkat tke date is M.DC.II. I suppose tkat in tke remaining copies another I was inserted after the C. It contains pp. 51; [6] 67. No notice either of this or of the preceding edition is taken by any writer whatever. There is a copy of this edition in the British Museum, but none of the year earlier. 7. —1602. According to Mercklin (Lindenius Renovatus, Norimb. 1686, p. 945), it was reprinted Basileoe, ap. Ludovieum Konig, 1602, iu 8.'; This, therefore, would be a reissue of the 1600 edition. I have not seen a copy. 8. —1602. The tract is contained in the Theatrvm Chemicvm, Ursellis, M.DCII. Vol. I. pp. 1-27. 9. —1602. There is an edition said to have been printed at Upsala in this year: Rob. Vallesis (sic) de veriiate et antiquitate artis chemice, etc. Upsal, 1602. (See J. F. John's Handworterbuch der allgemeineu chemie, Leipzig, 1817, Svo, Bd. I. p. 161. Note.) A statement to the same effect had been made by Fucks in 1806 (Repertorium, I. i. p. 99): Rob. Vallensis De Veritate et antiquitate chemice et auro potabili Vps. 8. It seems to me tkat tkis is a misprint for Vrs., tkat is Ursellis, and tkat Jokn kas not observed it, but bas aggravated it by writing tke word at greater lengtk. I know of no copy, and kave seen no otker mention of tke book than the above. 10. —1613. The tract was again reprinted in the Theatrum Chemicum, Argentorati, 1613, Vol. I. pp. 1-24. 11. —1659. The last reprint that I know of was in the Theatrum Chemicum, Argentorati, 1659, Vol. I. p. 7-29. These reprints are not commonly referred to by those who kave written about Vallensis. 12. —In the British Museum (Sloane MSS. 1806. Ssec. XVII. 12mo. ff. 1-50), there is a translation into English of the De veritate et antiqui- tate artis chemical. It follows the original closely, but some passages kave been curtailed. So far as I know it was never printed. I am not aware of a translation of tke treatise in any otker modern language. III.—The Subject. § 14.—When we turn to the work itself and ask what was its author's intention, and why it was thought of importance to discuss the question of the antiquity of the art at all, and how its truth and antiquity were proved, we find, it must be admitted,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22294193_0013.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)