Science & Technology / Alchemy, Astrology & Occult

KIRCHER, Athanasius. Ars magna sciendi, in XII libros digesta, qua nova & universali methodo ... [vol. 2 half-title:] Artis magnae seu combinatoriae sciendi, ... [titles on the frontispieces:] Ars magna sciendi sive combinatoria [vol. 1] Artis magnae combinatoriae [vol. 2].
Amsterdam, Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge and the widow of Elizaeus Weyerstraten, 1669. 2 volumes bound as 1. Royal folio (46 x 30 x 5.5 cm). With 2 richly engraved allegorical frontispieces, an engraved plate with a full-page portrait of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, an engraved plate showing all knowledge of the universe organised as a tree, 2 engraved volvelles (with 4 rotating dials), 20 further engravings on integral leaves and a couple dozen woodcut figures in the text. Contemporary richly gold-tooled red goatskin morocco decorated a petit fers, gold-tooled turn-ins, board edges and raised bands, giving a total of more than 1500 impressions of about 14 stamps and 3 rolls, edges gilt over red and blue squiggles. Janssonius van Waesberge, who published Kircher's books in Amsterdam from 1664/65 to 1682, arranged to have copies of several luxuriously bound for Kircher to present to leading figures and this is almost certainly one of them, presented to Giovanni Paolo Oliva, Superior General of the Jesuit Society. [18], 482, [10] pp. (including 2 integral frontispieces), plus 4 inserted tables & 2 plates. Full description

KLUGE, Carl Alexander Ferdinant (F. VAN DER BREGGEN, transl.). Proeve eener voorstelling van het dierlijk magnetismus als geneesmiddel. Uit het Hoogduitsch met eenige bijvoegselen door F. van der Breggen.
Amsterdam, Evert Maaskamp, 1812. 8vo. With an engraved title-page including an allegorical scene engraved by W. van Senus showing Asklepios and Hypnos chasing Death away from a sick man. Modern half vellum, marbled sides, new endpapers. [4], 551, 50 pp. Full description

LAVATER, Ludwig. De spectris, lemuribus et magnis atque insolitis fragoribus, variisque praesagitionibus quae plerunque obitum hominum, magnas clades, mutationésque imporium praecedunt.
Geneva, Eustache Vignon, 1575. 8vo. Early 20th-century vellum. [6], 272 pp. Full description

LAVATER, Ludwig and Sibrandus VOMELIUS (translator). Een boeck vande spoocken ofte nacht-gheesten ...
Amsterdam, Jan Evertsz. Cloppenburgh, 1610. 8vo. With an oval woodcut vignette on the title page, a large 8-line woodcut decorated initial at the start of the preface and smaller woodcut decorated initials throughout. Contemporary vellum, sewn on three tapes laced through the joints, with the manuscript title and a precious shelfmark(?) in brown ink on the spine, red edges. [1], [1 blank], [14], 287, [1 blank], [8] pp. Full description

LEMNIUS, Levinus. Occulta naturae miracula, ac varia rerum documenta, probabili ratione atque artifici coniectura duobus libris explicata, quae studioso avidoque lectori non tam usui sunt futura, quam oblectamento.
Antwerp, Willem Simon (colophon: Gillis Coppens van Diest), 1559. 8vo. With Simons woodcut device on the title-page and a woodcut coat of arms on title-page of the second part. Contemporary gold- and blind-tooled calf. [16], 192 ll. Full description

LIBAVIUS, Andreas. D.O.M.A. Alchymia ... recognita, emendata, et aucta, tum dogmatibus & experimentis non-nullis ...
Frankfurt am Main, printed by Johannes Saur for Peter Kopf, "1506" [= 1606]. 3 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With an engraved title page, ca. 200 woodcut illustrations (3 full-page, the others in the text), a woodcut printer's device on the divisional title pages of parts 2 and 3, numerous woodcut head- and tailpieces, and woodcut decorated initials. Modern blind-tooled speckled brown calf. [20], "196" [= 176], [12]; [10], 402; 192, [8] pp. Full description

LIBAVIUS, Andreas. Syntagmatis selectorum undiquaque et perspicue traditorum alchymiae arcanorum, tomus primus. [vol. 2:] Syntagmatis arcanorum chymicorum, ..., tomus secundus. [vol. 3:] Appendix necessaria syntagmatis arcanorum chymicorum.
Frankfurt, printed by Nikolaus Hoffmann for Peter Kopf, 1613-1615. 3 volumes. Folio. With the letterpress titles of volume 1 and 2 within the same engraved border (signed "G.Keller / 1605"), 1 woodcut plate, 3 double-page letterpress tables and numerous woodcut illustrations in text. Contemporary mottled calf, gold-tooled spines. [12], 480, [8]; [12], "453" [= 450], [15]; [12], 279, [13] pp. Full description

LICHTENBERGER, Johannes. Pronosticatio in latino rare & prius non audita: quae exponit & declarat nonnullos coeli ifluxus: & i[n]clinatione[m] certaru[m] constellationu[m] magne videlicet co[n]iunctionis & eclipsis: quae suera[n]t istis annis: quid boi maliue hoc tempore & in futuru[m] huic mu[n]do porte[n]dant: durabitq[uam] pluribus annis.
[colophon:] Venice, [Niccolò & Domenico dal Gesù = Nicolo & Domenico Sandri dal Jesus], 23 August [1511?]. 4to. With the large Dal Jesus white-on-black woodcut device, 45 half-page or nearly full-page woodcuts in the text, most with letterpress captions above or below, the first showing Ptolemy, Aristotle, the Sibyl, Birgitta of Sweden and Brother Reinhart receiving divine inspiration, with an explanation on the facing page in a 4-piece ornamental floral woodcut frame. Modern half red morocco. 39, [1 blank] ll. Full description

MARBODE (MARBODIUS) of Rennes. De gemmarum lapidumq[ue] pretiosorum formis, naturis, atq[ue] viribus eruditu[m] cu[m] primis opusculu[m], ... scholiis q[uo]q[ue] illustratu[m] p[er] Alardu[m] Aemstelredamu[m].
Cologne, Hero Alopecius [Fuchs], 1539. 8vo. With a woodcut illustration on the title-page, representing a Jewish priest behind a board with the names of 12 stones which represent the 12 tribes of Israel. 17th-century gold-tooled red morocco, richly gold-tooled spinel, gold-tooled fillets and small cornerpieces on both boards, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins. 124, [2] ll. Full description

MAZZOTTA, Benedetto. De triplici philosophia naturali, astrologica, et minerali. In quibus differit cohaerenter de elementis, & variis mixtorum proprietatibus. ... Opus theol. philos. medicis, chymicis, & astrologis jucundum, ac simul utile.
Bologna, Giovanni Bapttista Ferroni, 1653. 4to. With an engraved heraldic and allegorical frontispiece drawn and engraved by Bartolomeo Coriolano with the arms of the dedicatee Hipolyto Cattaneo, a full-page engraving (with 7 figures) on an integral leaf, and 2 engraved illustrations and 2 woodcut diagrams in the text. Contemporary boards covered with a vellum leaf from a 16th-century(?) plain-chant manuscript antiphonary. Frontispiece plus [10], [2 blank], 148, “252” [= 272] pp. Full description