The first history of chemistry / by John Ferguson.

  • John Ferguson
Date:
[1886]
Catalogue details

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.

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    The other copy has a different title-page :— 1559. — Commentarivs | In Artem Versificato- | riam Hulderici Hutteni, cum perbreui accessione | prirnarum & mediarum syllabarum, atque | specierum carminis, a Roberto Valdensi (sic) | Rugleusi editus : ao denuo ab | eodem auctus & re- | cognitus. | Prreterea adiectum est ad finem, Compendium de Accentibus, | & Periodis, siue clausularum punctis. | Parisiis, | Apud Gabrielem Buon, in Clauso BruneUo, | ad D. Claudij insigne. | 1559. | It is a small 4to, and contains ff. 28. This too may have been a sort of school book written to promote scholarship and the appreciation of the technicalities of Latin verse. § 6.—The same year, 1559, he is said* to have edited the first edition of the chemical treatise ascribed to Morienus, De Transfiguratione Metallorum ; two years later, in 1561, he brought out the little work on the Verity and Antiquity of Chemistry, which is specially the theme of the present notes, and to which fuller reference will be made presently, and in 1564 he certainly edited the second edition of Morienus. § 7.—With regard' to the 1559 edition of Morienus, I am not prepared to say that Vallensis was not the editor. There is no direct proof, however, that he was; for the introductory address to the reader, which infoi'ms him that two Latin versions were employed, the best, by Castrensis, having been used to form the basis of the text, and the various readings of the other anonymous version being added on the margin, gives no indication as to who saw the book through the press, whether it was the printer, Guillard, himself, or some one else. On the other hand, however, the very last page contains two Latin couplets by Vallensis, so that it is quite possible that he had something to do with it. The title is as follows :— Morieni | Romani, Qvondam | Eremitae Hierosolymitani, | de trans- figuratione metallorum, & oc- | culta, summaque antiquoruin Phi- | losophorum medicina, Li- | bellus, nusquam hacte- | nus in lucem | editus. | Cvm Privilegio. | Parisiis, | Apud Gulielmum Guillard, in via Iaco- | bsea, sub diuai Barbara? signo. | 1559. | It is a small 4to, ff. [2] 34. Both the first and second editions of Morienus are to be put certainly among the rarities of alchemical literature. The second edition is perhaps the rarer of the two. * Biographie Universelle. Nouvellc Biographic Ginirale. Neither of the editions of Morienus is quoted by Lebreton aud Frere.