Ein schöner newer historischer Discurs, von der Natur, Tugenden, Eigenschafften und Gebrauch dess Einhorns: Auch wie und wo dasselbig zu finden und zu fangen: Deszgleichen von der Prob desz rechten wahren Einhorns: Beneben vielen andern denckwürdigen Historien und Geschichten, durch Laurentium Catelanum, vornehmen Apoteckern dess Hertzogen von Vandosme, zu Montpellier, in frantzösischer Sprach beschrieben. Nunmehr aber von Georgio Fabro, der Artzney d. fürstl. Hess. und der Keys. Burg Friedberg besteltem Medico, in Hochteutsch trewlich ubergesetzt, und mit schönen in Kupffer gestochenen Figuren gezieret.
Frankfurt am Main: Lucas Jennis, 1625.
Price: $7,800.00
Small octavo: 16 x 9.4 cm. [24], 149 pp. Collation: *8, **4, A-I8, K3 (-blank l. K4)
FIRST GERMAN EDITION, THE FIRST WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.
Bound in 19th c. paste-paper over boards (edges worn). A fine copy. Illustrated with seven full-page engravings. One leaf with irregular blank edge, not touching the image. Extremely rare. 1 copy traced in North America (Harvard.) No copies of the French original in North America.
Rare first German -and first illustrated- edition of this book concerning the natural history of the unicorn and the medicinal-alchemical properties of its horn, written by French hermetic pharmacist & naturalist Laurent Catelan (ca. 1568-1647) and translated from the French by Georg Faber (ca. 1573/75 - after 1632), personal physician to the Landgraf court in Hessen. Faber dedicates his translation to the Landgräfin Anna Margaretha. This was certainly a delicate matter, since the unicorn, which could be tamed and ridden only by a virgin, carried well-known erotic symbolism. The seven illustrations, including the classic image of a unicorn resting its head on a maiden’s lap, were engraved by Matthäus Merian the elder (1593-1650) and were not present in the French original, “Histoire de la nature, chasse vertus, proprietez et usage de la lycorne” (Montpellier, 1624), which only featured one image.
Catelan’s book on the unicorn and the power of its horn is the longest of his three alchemical treatises on rare and marvelous medicinal-alchemical substances (the other two are about the Bezoar and the Mandrake). Catelan tells us that he possessed, in his famous ‘cabinet de curiosités’, a genuine unicorn horn. Much of the book is devoted to the medicinal uses of the unicorn’s horn, believed to be a powerful antidote against all poisons.
In the first part of this work, Catelan considers the different kind of unicorns and explains how to separate the real one from the false, i.e. those with a single horn but without the magic power (such as the rhinoceros). He describes how to identify real unicorns, where to find them, and how to hunt them.
The true unicorns are not, according to Catelan, the elegant and beautiful white animals as depicted in the Renaissance but wild beasts with invincible strength, that cannot be captured alive. Still he believes that they are drawn to maidens and fall asleep in their laps, but he does not understand why these wild beasts do so.
Around 1600, the age-old belief in unicorn horn as an antitoxin began to be called into question. Although the surgeon Ambroise Paré (1510-1590), court physician to four French kings, had to accept, however reluctantly, the existence of the unicorn (since it is mentioned in the Bible), he vehemently denied the supposed medicinal effect of unicorn products. He defended his position by an appeal to ancient and contemporary authorities, by rational argumentation, and by experiment. Paré's arguments failed to convince Catelan, who adhered to an alternative, so-called spagyric, medical theory of neoplatonic inspiration, promoted by Paracelsus and Ficino.
Catelan remained convinced of the efficacity of unicorn horn, which in his view could draw any poisonous substance away from the human body. The medical establishment being reluctant to give up a rewarding source of income, 'unicorn' remained much in demand as a prescription.
Provenance: With the bookplate of Carl Franz Georg Richard Schwerdt and his wife Mathilde. The Schwerdts assembled a large book collection on hunting and he published the four-volume “Hunting, Hawking, Shooting Illustrated in a Catalogue of Books, Manuscripts, Prints and Drawings”.
Further reading: W.P. Gerritsen. The unicorn and the pharmacists. in: Gewina 30 (2007), pp. 1-10; Fischer, L. P.; Cossu Ferra Fischer, V. The unicorn and the unicorn horn among apothecaries and physicians; in: History Sci Med 45 (2011), pp. 265 - 274; Olav Laubinger. Krankheit und ärztliche Tätigkeit im Dreißigjährigen Krieg. Landgraf Philipp III. von Hessen-Butzbach und sein Leibarzt und Reisebegleiter Dr. Georg Faber. Philipps-Universität Marburg, 2010-12-29 (Diss.
VD17 39:117690K; USTC 2006860; Wütrich II, 165; Brüning I, 1431.