Observationum ac Paradoxorum chymiatricorum Libri Duo: Quorum Unus medicamentorum Chymicorum praeparatione, Alter eorundem usum succincte perspicuèque explicat.
Leiden: Joannes Maire, 1631.
Price: $5,500.00
Quarto: 19.3 x 14 cm. [viii], 11-173, [1] p. Collation: A-Y4. (Leaf B1 canceled as always. Y4 blank and present.)
FIRST EDITION.
A very nice copy in contemporary limp vellum. Light marginal dampstain to outer margin of first gathering, marginal worm-trail in blank lower margin of gatherings Q and R discreetly repaired. Occasional light toning, a few stray marks. Leaf B1 canceled as always. With a fine engraved frontispiece by Gerard Muntinck (active 1626-1660), showing alchemical symbols.
An important work in 17th c. chemical and alchemical theory, in which the author challenges Paracelsus’ theory of the alchemical “tria prima” (“three primes”), i.e. that salt, sulfur, and mercury were the fundamental entities to which everything in nature could be reduced.
The book is of great interest for Billich’s articulation of his corpuscular theory, which has affinities with the corpuscular theories of Descartes and Gassendi and had its roots in Lucretian atomism.
The book contains “numerous descriptions of pharmaceutical chemical preparations, from animals, vegetables, and minerals, with their supposed physiological actions on humans.”(Neville Catalogue, Vol. I, p. 153)
The author, Anton Günther Billich studied medicine, chemistry and pharmaceutics at the University of Helmstedt under the prominent neo-Aristotelian Henning Arnisaeus (1570–1636). Billich also became the son-in-law of fellow atomist and chymical physician Angelus Sala (1576–1637). In 1621, Anton Günther, Count of Oldenburg, appointed Billich his personal physician. He died in 1640 at the age of 42.
Billich published a series of studies in which he endeavored to free pharmaceutics and chemistry from the remnants of medieval and early modern errors and to base them on reliable scientific knowledge. His scientific theories are situated within “a tradition of learned chymistry in Germany, developed by university professors and university-trained physicians, [that] grew out of natural philosophy, medicine, and alchemy, and contained elements of both theory and practice.”(Klein, Corporeal Elements and Principles in the Learned German Chymical Tradition, p. 347)
In 1621, Billich published his first critique of Paracelsus’s ideas and those of his later adherents, such as the Danish royal physician Petrus Severinus, who went further than Paracelsus by positing “that elements or principles were in some sense metaphysical or incorporeal. Paracelsus had argued that the ‘tria prima’ of salt, sulfur, and mercury were the fundamental entities to which everything in nature could be reduced, but there were many ambiguities within his theory of matter—for instance, the relationship between Aristotelian elements and chymical principles—that were left to be addressed by his followers.”(ibid, p. 348)
In ‘De Tribus Chymicorum Principiis’(1621), Billich laid out his argument against the Paracelus and his followers, in particular Jean Beguin and Joseph Duchesne. Billich began “by clarifying the proper relationship between chymistry and both medicine and ancient philosophy. He wrote:
‘True chymistry does not place itself before medicine, but as a mistress, acknowledges
this, that it does not in any way subvert or destroy medicine or the philosophy of the
ancients taught up until now, but both partly perfects and partly illustrates and adorns.’
“Billich argued that Paracelsus had ‘inculcated misery and absurdity in chymistry
with these principles,’ but because Paracelsus’s ideas were not clearly enough
taught, he turned to Duchesne and Beguin, in order to ‘see whether these
[authors] supply light for us.’ In short, they did not, and thus Billich responded
with ridicule.”(ibid, p. 357)
Chemical Observations and Paradoxes (1631):
“Continuing the attack on the Paracelsians, which he had begun in 1621, Billich here presents a number of chemical paradoxes and rejects the ‘tria prima’ altogether. Billich criticizes the various iatrochemical preparations described in the works of Beguin, Croll, Du Chesne, Paracelsus, and other chemists. The book contains numerous descriptions of pharmaceutical chemical preparations, from animals, vegetables, and minerals, with their supposed physiological actions on man.”(Neville Catalogue, Vol. I, p. 153)
Further reading: Joel Klein, Corporeal Elements and Principles in the Learned German Chymical Tradition, in Ambix, Vol. 61 (2014), p. 345-365.
Neville, The Roy G. Neville Historical Chemical Library: An Annotated Catalogue of Printed Books on Alchemy, Vol. I, p. 153; Duveen, p. 78; Wellcome, I, p.46; Ferchl, p. 46; Ferguson, I, p. 107; Partington, II, p. 280-81. Breugelmans, “Fac et spera. Johannes Maire, publisher, printer and bookseller in Leiden 1603 – 1657”, pp. 30, 295: 1631.