NAZARI, Giovanni Battista.

by Giovanni Battista Nazari

£8,750 · Offered by Sokol Books

A good copy of this fascinating alchemic treatise on the transmutation of metals, beautifully illustrated and in a contemporary binding. This is the third edition, the first to include the Concordanza dei Filosofi at the end, here published for the first time. Giovanni Battista Nazari (XVI century) was an Italian humanist, historian and alchemist of Saiano, a small town in the province of Brescia (Lombardy, Italy). A scholar of the history and traditions of Brescia, he is most known for his philosophical-alchemical studies. Du Fresnoy [French bibliographer, 1674-1755] says Nazari had read an infinity of authors, even those little known, and had worked on the subject [i.e. alchemy] for forty years (Ferguson). Three dreams on the transmutation of metals , recounts three allegorical journeys, presented in the form of dreams, to the kingdoms of alchemy. The author is guided by Nymphs firstly to the sophist kingdom, based on false alchemical principles, then to the real kingdom, functioning in nature, and finally to the philosophical kingdom, which produces the true metamorphosis of the human into the divine. The primary model for this work is an alchemical reinterpretation of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499). The pilgrim-hero of Nazari s story passes through forests, villages, lakes, tombs, gardens, labyrinths, arches, pyramids, places generally characterized by elaborate architectural constructions and decorated with statues and enigmatic inscriptions. He stops to look at od

• Binding: Hardcover

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