Second enlarged edition of a popular book containing recipes and prescriptions to treat all kind of pains and diseases, compiled posthumously from Sir Kenelm Digbys notes and annotations by one of his assistants, George Hartman, who published the book with the consent of Digbys son in 1668. Many editions followed, including translations in German, French and Dutch.
Kenelm Digby (1603-1665) was an English courtier and diplomat, but also a highly reputed natural philosopher and astrologer.
After Digbys death, George Hartman published three major collections of his medical, culinary and chemical recipes, including the present Choice and experimented receipts. His compilations from Digbys papers are normally catalogued as Digbys work, although strictly speaking he is not the author. The compilation actually contains Digbys own recipes, those he got from his friends and those Hartman added. Since the portrait was printed for the books publisher and dated one year before the book, it was probably made for inclusion in some copies, but the ESTC appears not to include it in the collation and it is not present in the Huntington copy that can be viewed on EEBO. It was apparently an extra for those who wished to pay for it.
Copy presented to Dr. Jackson Fischer by J.F. Payne, London, 19 April 1890. Back hinge fully cracked, some soiling (especially on the title-page) and a hole repaired in pp. 5-6. Still in good condition. ESTC R10653; D. Rubin, Sir Kenelm Digby: a bibliography (1991), 104; R.T. Peterson, Sir Kenelm Digby, the ornament of England, 1603-1665 (1956).