MIZAULD, Antonio.

Frankfurt, Nicolai Hoffmann, 1613. 8vo. (32),+ 443,+ (1) pp. Small margins, especially at the top. Slightly browned and with light foxing. Slight soiling and wrinkling to front fly leaves. Small stains on pp. (7-8), (13-14) and 259. Tear in the margin of p. (3-4). Small hole in the margin of p. 35. Very light dampstain in the margin of the first 100 pages. Soiled and slightly worn contemporary vellum with red sprinkled edges. Library bookplate of the Provincial masonic lodge of Gothenburg, and its hand written number-label on spine. VD17 23:237596H. Ferguson II p. 96f. and Wellcome 4368 for the 1592 edition. Caillet p. 116 and Duveen p. 407 for other editions. First published in 1566. This is a reprint of the Frankfurt editions of 1592 and 1599 (and of an edition without the ”Memorabilium aliquot naturae arcanorum sylvula” 1589).With separate titles for: ”Memorabilium aliquot naturae arcanorum sylvula, rerum variarum sympathias, & antipathias, seu naturales concordias & discordias, libellis duobos complectens.” which makes up pp. 269-355 (with somewhat erratic pagination) and ”Harmonia coelestium corporum et humanorum dialogis undecim astronomice & medice per Anton Mizaldum Monlucianum elaborata et demonstrata. Ad Antonium Olivarium Lumbariesum antistitem eximium.” (pp. 357-443). On the last page is a verse celebrating Mizauld, written by Johannes Perellus, a French philologist who in 1535 had published an edition of the ”Mensibus Atticis” of Theodorus Gaza.Antonius Mizauld (1510?-1578) was a very successful physician and medicinal doctor who in his later career became a prolific writer and compiler of books on the secrets of nature. John Ferguson writes at length about Mizauld: ”born at Monluçon in Bourbonnois, early in the sixteenth century. He studied medicine in Paris, graduated and entered upon practice, in which he was so successful, as to have merited the epithet of the French Aesculapius. Under Oronce Finé, he acquired skill in astrology, working it as a branch of medicine, after the custom of those days. He was summoned to the Court, was a friend of Princess Marguerite de Valois, and was a man of some rank. Persuaded that he had a nobler mission than that of healing, he relinquished his profession to devote himself to investigating the secrets of nature and to writing books. In the latter he succeeded, but in spite of his endeavours, nature kept her secrets still undivulged. He was devoted to astronomy and astrology, but escaped the pitfall of alchemy. After what must have been a laborious life, he died in 1578. […]In drawing up these collections, Mizauld laid under contribution ancient and modern writers alike, and extracted from them all the marvellous stories they contained, without troubling very much about their probability, or attempting to apply any criticism whatsoever. […] The contents of this book are certainly woth noting, and one can only say that if certain of the secrets are true they surpass belief, and if they are not, Mizauld’s belief must have surpassed credulity. At the same time, the collection, however unsuited for the present it be, is interesting, not to say valuable, as a record of many popular ideas on natural history and science, and as affording clues to the origins of popular beliefs , old-fashioned cures, and proverbial sayings.” (Ferguson, John. ”Biographical Notes on Histories of Inventions and Books of Secrets” Part IV. pp. 3ff)