Hippocrates Chimicus, Qui Novissimi Viperini Salis Antiquissiana Fundamenta offendita.
Venice: Typis Combi, & LeNoti, 1666. 1st Edition. Hardcover.
FIRST EDITION OF TACHENIUS' POPULAR WORK ON HIPPOCRATRIC CHEMISTRY.
A key work of chemistry and medicine of Otto Tachenius (1610-1680), based on the classic Hippocrates. He was schooled by Franciscus Sylvius and believed that acids formed the basis of all physiology. According to Tachenius, acid and alkali are the elements of all things, corresponding to the fire and water that according to Hippocrates are in all things. Tachenius was a German pharmacist who worked as an apothecary's assistant in different German towns, before moving to Padua in 1652 where he earned his medical degree and introduced his acid-alkali theory. Finally he moved to Venice, where this first edition of his Hippocrates chimicus was published (1666). The work describes his theory of acid-alkali and his discovery of "viperine salts", from which he offers the reader many practical applications and recipes. In Venice his practical chemical recipes were well received by artisans such as glass-makers and soap-boilers, as were the methods for creating gold and coloured ink. The Antiquissime Hippocraticae medicinae clavis includes secret medical remedies that also can be created with the viperine salts, such as remedies against several diseases and cosmetic tricks like the whitening of teeth. All supposedly based on Hippocrates. Besides a justification of his theories, naming Hippocrates in both titles was also clever salesmanship by Tachenius.
BOOK DETAILS AND CONDITION: First Ed. 12mo: blank, 18 lvs, 239, (1) pp, 3 blanks in cont. leather (raised bands), tightly bound, shaving incl v. sl. loss occas. to edges of letters, marg. Notes and underlining in cont. han. See Partington II pp 291-296. Overall VG. REFERENCES: 1: Krivatsky 11653; Partington, History of chemistry II, pp. 291-297; Thorndike VIII, pp. 357-360. Also see A.G. Debus, Chemistry and medical debate: Van Helmont to Boerhaave (2001), p. 114 et passim.
PROVENANCE: From the Arthur C. Greenberg History of Chemistry Library. Very Good / No Jacket. Item #EBS100430
Price: $3,500.00