Two works, initially published in two complementary edition and here in a single edition, providing a very sharp critique of the standard German pharmacopoeia. Johann Zwelfer from the Palatinate (1618-1668) worked as an apothecary for 16 years, then studied medicine in Padua. He is first mentioned as the author of the two present works: the Pharmacopoeia regia (vol. 2), and his critical corrections to and commentary on the standard German pharmacopoeia, Pharmacopoeia Augustana (vol. 1). Both were first published in Vienna in 1652 and further editions appeared at Gouda (1658) and Nürnberg (1668) before the present rare Dordrecht edition.
Together these works form an outstanding and influential contribution to the reform of the pharmacopoeia in the second half of the 17th century. The ca. 1564 Pharmacopoeia Augustana, published under the auspices of the Augsburg Collegium Medicorum, was one of the first and most influential collections of pharmacological recipes to be officially designated as a standard, but like other early collections it included recipes, many of them ancient, that had not been critically examined or tested. The first major controversy that arose around the compilation of these works had been whether the new chemical remedies associated with Paracelsus should be included, but this question had been settled with their inclusion by the time Zwelfer became active. The next issue was the improvement of the recipes, and he may have been the first to put the new principles into practice.
Each volume with an owners inscription of Joannis Coste, Pharmacopolae 1676, as well as a library stamp of the Wellcome Library (incl. their cancellation stamp). Lacking the engraved frontispiece in vol. 1 and with wormholes in the margins of vol. 2, sometimes affecting the text. Front hinge of vol. 1 weak. Otherwise in good condition. Jocher, Allgemeines Gelehrten-Lexicon IV (1751), 2141; J. R. Partington, A history of chemistry II, pp. 292, 296-297; Ferguson II, p. 572; Hirsch/H V, 1055; Ferchi 598; Hein/Schwartz II, 787; Scherer, Literatura pharmacopoearum 418d.