104 pp. Small 8vo, attractive antique calf-backed marbled boards. Freystadt [Dresden]: 1690.

First edition, and very rare (no copy in North America according to WorldCat), of this pseudonymous second attack by the alchemist/chemist Amelung on the Reformierter Apothecker (1688) of Janusz Abraham Gehema (1617-1715). Gehema was one of the leading proponents in Germany of the “new medicine” of the Dutch and French, which he had learned while a medical student at Leiden, Groningen, and Utrecht.

In the Reformierter Apothecker, Gehema presented his plan to reform the apothecary trade in Germany by reducing and simplifying the range of remedies to only... More

1 p.l., 109 pp. Small 8vo, attractive modern marbled wrappers. Berlin: 1815.

The very rare sale catalogue — Loh, Vol. 6, p. 102, locates no copy — of the fine scientific library of Meyer (1739-1811), owner of the Hof-Apotheke in Stettin. He studied chemistry in Berlin under J.H. Pott and A.S. Marggraf, and in 1764 he went to Uppsala University, where he studied botany with Linnaeus and possibly chemistry with J.G. Wallerius. In 1780 Meyer founded a distillery in Stettin to produce French-style brandy and liqueurs according to a process that he had developed in his apothecary shop.

This library... More

30 black & white brush & ink drawings of diseased horses. Scroll (130 x 27,630 mm.), 94 joined sheets, with several extension flaps, which fold down with additional text, recently & expertly backed. Omi Province (today’s Shiga Province): the most modern date we find in the scroll is 1809.

A remarkably long scroll (90 feet); this is the most comprehensive old Japanese encyclopedia of horse diseases and their treatments we have encountered. The text includes recipes for medicines and acupuncture techniques as well as numerous case histories. There are references in this scroll to texts being copied in 1611. Each... More

Twelve full-page woodcuts & numerous woodcuts in the text. 36 folding leaves. Two parts in one vol. 8vo, orig. blue wrappers (wrappers rubbed & somewhat wormed), orig. block-printed title label on upper cover no longer present, modern stitching. “Ichijo-dori” [a street in Kyoto]: Tomikura Tahei, 1690.

First edition of this early and rare book providing prescriptions for treatments in the different stages of tuberculosis. The author describes ten drugs made from vegetables that give miraculous results in treating the disease. The second part, entitled “Mujo Gengen santen shinden gyokudo shoshi chiden shirochu soho,” describes the parasitic worms said to grow... More

75; 64 folding leaves. Two vols. 8vo (275 x 180 mm.), orig. pale blue wrappers (label on upper covers rather corroded but legible), new stitching. [Japan]: Preface dated March 1755.

A rare commentary by the Japanese Aizu(?) fiefdom doctor Setsuo Kagayama on Wan jin yi tong by Tingxian Gong (1522-1619), physician of the Imperial Medical Academy in Beijing. The Wan jin yi tong is part of a larger work, the Wanbing Huichun of 1585 [Restoration of Health from Myriad Diseases], the author’s most famous work, which had pharmaceutical recipes from about 240 different ingredients.

Gong came from a prominent family... More

Wooden board with thick frame (1360 x 650 x 70 mm.), orig. metalwork pieces on sides & corners, with orig. metal fittings on top to facilitate hanging perpendicularly outside the shop. Both sides carved with characters of the same text, one side artfully carved in sosho tai (a calligraphic cursive script), the other side finely carved in gyosho tai (a semi-cursive script), with furigana reading marks. Characters painted with black pigment & highlighted in gold lacquer. [Japan]: date of manufacture of the board is engraved on one of the cornerpieces (in trans.): “February 1804” by “kazarishi Kinjiro Kamiya” (“ornamental metalwork... More

Seven color paintings of patients afflicted with leprosy & one anatomical illus. of the central body trunk & its organs. Scroll (253 x 5250 mm.). [Japan]: at end, in trans.: “Copied 1812.”

The long introduction at the beginning of this scroll provides details of the most interesting provenance of the information contained here, which passed through several generations of Portuguese and Japanese physicians. We learn that the treatments described here to cure leprosy originate with Portuguese doctors who accompanied missionaries to Japan in the second half of the 16th century. The two names of the Western doctors, father and son... More

Forty parts in 12 vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers, new stitching. At the beginning of each part: Cixi: Prefaces dates 1776 & 1788.

A valuable and influential dictionary of synonyms and antonyms in the Chinese language. Li, a native of Cixi, served as a magistrate in Wangjiang County. Originally published in 39 parts, this edition has the valuable supplement — the 40th part — by Huai Guan, painter and librarian, who lived in Hangzhou, near Cixi.

This is an encyclopedic work, encompassing synonyms and antonyms in all disciplines, including science, politics, history, gastronomy, costumes, technology, books and bibliography, transportation, weaving, military... More

Three vols. Small 8vo, cont. mottled sheep (some wear to ends of spines & corners, fore-edge of upper cover of Vol. III worn), spines gilt, brown & green morocco lettering pieces on spines. Paris: P. Fr. Didot jeune, 1777 [but probably 1778].

A pirated reprint of the authorised second edition of 1778, which was expanded to nearly twice the size of the first edition with an up-to-date account of chemistry and much new material. Although technical dictionaries had appeared earlier, this was the first attempt to cover the whole field of chemistry, pure and applied, in an encyclopedic manner. The... More

Four full-page brush & ink illus. 14 folding leaves. 8vo (244 x 165 mm.), orig. wrappers (wrappers somewhat soiled), stitched as issued. [Japan: ca. 1820].

Nakagami (1743-1833), a member of the great Koiho (Traditional Medicine) School, was one of the leading practitioners of his day. He was trained in the method of Kan, To, and Ge (perspiration, emesis, and purgation). He started his practice in Kyoto in 1791 and wrote on pathology, leprosy, psychiatric diseases, water cures, and diagnosis of diseases. Most of his texts remained in manuscript.

Our manuscript, based on the secret teachings of Nakagami, is concerned with... More

37 fine woodcuts (some are single-page, others double-page, & one is a text illus.), of which most are black & white, but 11 are printed in complex color & eight are delicately highlighted with gray tints. 33; 33; 32; 34; 35; 35 folding leaves. Six vols. 8vo, orig. decorated wrappers (wrappers slightly soiled), orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers, new stitching. Wakayama [& for Vols. IV-VI: Wakayama, Kyoto, Edo, & Osaka]: Ohiya Ihei et al., [Vols. I-III], Prefaces dated 1833 & 1850.

First edition, and a complete set in six volumes, of this beautifully illustrated natural history work; the... More

Title printed in red & black. 103 unnumbered leaves, one blank leaf. Small 8vo, modern vellum over boards. [Colophon]: Augsburg: M. Franck for G. Willer, [1568].

First edition of a Paracelsian rarity. Paracelsus' commentaries on the first five of Hippocrates' Aphorisms had been published the previous year in Cologne. The present edition comprises his commentaries on all 25 aphorisms of the first section, and on six of the second. They are followed by treatises on the medical uses of corals and the herbs hypericum (St. John's worts) and persicaria (peachwort). A slightly different version of the section on hypericum was published... More