TWO EXCESSIVELY SCARCE ALCHEMY TREATIES, BOTH IN FIRST EDITION
NO COPIES IN USA OF SCHEGK'S WORK

1. LULL, RAIMUNDUS & ALBERTUS MAGNUS. De secretis naturae sive Quinta essentia libri duo. His accesserunt Alberti Magni Summi philosophi, De mineralibus & rebus metallicis Libri quninque. Quae omnia solerti cura repurgata rerum naturae studiosis recens publicata sunt per M. Gualtherum H. Ryff, Argentinensem. Medicum. (Argentorati (Strassbourg) apud Balthassarum Beck), 1541.
[BOUND WITH:]
2. SCHEGK, JAKOB. De causa continente […], Eodem interprete Alexandri Aphrodisaei de mixtione libellum. Tubingae, Apud Ulricum Morhardum, 1540.

8vo, 17th century full calf binding , gilt titles at spine, ff. [4], 183, [4 Index] for first work; ff. 69, [1] for the second work.
Frontispiece with Alchemic woodcut on second work.

One full-page and 7 half-page woodcut illustrations along the text.

1.Very rare first edition, the first edited by the celebrated Strasbourg physician Walter Hermann Ryff. The edition contains two works: Lull’s De secretis naturae and the five books of Albertus Magnus’ De mineralibus & rebus metallicus. which is among the authentic writings of the author; both works are of the outmost importance and greatly influenced Renaissance philosophy and science.

Lull invented an «art of finding truth» (often in Lullism referred to as «The Art»), which centuries later stimulated Leibnitz’ dream of a universal algebra.
In De secretis naturae, divided in two books, alchemic practice is related to wine quintessence (or the fifth element) and a distillation technique developed by Jean de Roquetaillade in 1350.
Three are the targets, medicine, nuclear transmutation, creation of gold and medicine and Alchemy are connected and share the same objective, men transformation.

The llustration show different phases of distillation and related alembics; full page woodcut shows the mysterious Athanor, a furnace used in to provide a uniform and constant heat for alchemical digestion.
Follows the Magnus’ De mineralibus & rebus metallicis where he speculate on stones and metals and on their physical and their occult power.
The present Ryff-edition became very popular and later appeared numerous times. It was reprinted already the following year in Venice, 1542, and editions followed in Nürnberg, 1546, Basel, 1561, Köln, 1567.

2. Scarce first edition of Schegk’s translation of the medical work of Alexander of Afrodisia, a Peripatetic philosopher and the most celebrated of the Ancient Greek commentators on the writings of Aristotle

Ramon Lull (1232-1315) was a Majorcan writer and philosopher, logician and a Franciscan tertiary. He is credited with writing the first major work of Catalan literature. Recently surfaced manuscripts show him to have anticipated by several centuries prominent work on elections theory. He is also considered a pioneer of computation theory, especially given his influence on Gottfried Leibniz.
Within the Franciscan Order he is honored as a martyr. He was beatified in 1857 by Pope Pius IX and his feast day was assigned to 30 June and is celebrated by the Third Order of St. Francis

Albertus Magnus, 1206 – 1280), also known as Albert the Great and Albert of Cologne, is a Catholic saint. He was a German Dominican friar and a Catholic bishop. He was known during his lifetime as doctor universalis and doctor expertus and, late in his life, the term magnus was appended to his name. Scholars such as James A. Weisheipl and Joachim R. Söder have referred to him as the greatest German philosopher and theologian of the Middle Ages. The Catholic Church honours him as a Doctor of the Church, one of only 35 so honoured.

Jakob Schegk (also known as Jakob Degen, Johann Jacob Brucker Schegk, Jakob Schegk the elder, Schegkius, and Scheckius) (1511 – 1587) was a polymath German Aristotelian philosopher and academic physician.

Provenance: Contemporary handwritten notes along the text.

References: OCLC locates only 3 copies in USA of Lull’s edition, none for Schegk.

REFERENCES: Ferguson 11, 54; Duveen p, 369; Thornidike, 11, 517-592; Durling 4203.

A very fine copy.