CROLL, Oswald

by Oswald Croll

£1,650 · Offered by Sokol Books

.A perfectly acceptable copy of this rare, posthumous collected edition of two very influential alchemical works. Oswald Croll (1563-1609), professor at Marburg and a follower of Hermetic philosophy, was a major supporter of Paracelsian views on the difference between chemistry and alchemy, and on the importance of chemistry as ancillary to medicine. First published in 1608, Basilica Chymica begins with a long prefatio admonitoria . First, it explains the essence of true medicine , which can only be practiced using the book of nature , including planetary influence, and with good knowledge of the natural elements (the spagyric art). Second, it illustrates how and why sickness occurs, with references to important Paracelsian theories such as that of tartarus (dried salt accumulating in the body as a result of digestion). The core of Basilica Chymica discusses how illnesses (including syphilis or morbus gallicus , epilepsy and the plague) can be expelled , with instructions and doses for chemical remedies such as vitriol, mercury, antimony, salniter, cinnamon oil, mumia, cordials and balsams. It focuses on their curative properties as, for instance, odorifera (healing through their smell), and illustrates two kinds of Paracelsian zenexton , an amulet worn against the plague. The second part De signaturis internis rerum was originally published separately in 1609. It is a study of the Galenic doctrine of signatures, i.e., how herbs which look like specific body parts can be used

• Binding: Hardcover

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.