SAMMELBAND OF THREE RARE WORKS ON THE PLAGUE AND A BOOK OF SECRETS

PISTORIUS, Johann (1546-1608). De vera curandae pestis ratione, liber unus […] Frankfurt am Main, Martin Lechler for Hieronymus Feyerabend, 1568. [Bound with:] IMSSER, Philipp (1500-1570). Klein Pestilentzbüchlin für die armen Handwercks un[d] Baurs Leut, wölche den Artzen unnd Apotecken zü weit gesessen oder sich Armüt halben schlechter ding behelffen müssen. Jn gegenwertiger Gefarlicheit auffs […] beschriben Tübingen, n.pr., 1567. [Bound with:] SCHNELLENBERG (OCYORUS), Tarquinius (c. 1490-1561). Experimenta von zwentzig Pestilentz Wurtzeln, unnd Kreutern wie sie alle und ein jegliches besonder für Gifft un[d] Pestilentz gebraucht mögen werden dem Menchem in und ausswendig sampt viel andern heilsamen tugenden und wirckungen Teutche Recepta[…] Strassburg, Josias Rihel, 1568. [Bound with:] WECKER, Johann Jacob (1528-1586). Ein nutzliches Büchlein von mancherley künstlichen wasseren, ölen, unnd weinen, jetz neuwlich in Teutsch gebracht. Basel, Peter Perna, 1569.
Four works in one volume, 8vo (mm). Pistorius: 1-8, [4], 9-67, [1] leaves. Collation: A8 2A4 B-H8 I4. Woodcut printer's device on title page. Colophon and errata at l. I4v; Imsser: [56] leaves. Collation: A-G8. The two final leaves are blank; Schnellenberg: [48] leaves. Collation: A-F⁸. The last leaf is a blank. With 14 woodcut illustrations in the text (2 full-page); Wecker: [16], 136 pp. Collation: a8 A-H8 I4. Woodcut printer's device on title page. Contemporary flexible vellum with overlapping edges, inked title on spine (lacking the ties, soiled, front panel and spine detached from the bookblock). First title page with ownership entry and marginal repair not affecting the text. A good copy.
Interesting Sammelband containing three rare works on the plague and the remedies against it, and one book of secrets, all but one in first edition.
I (Pistorius). Rare first and only edition of this treatise on the plague, which proposes among other remedies metallic and alchemical medicines, occult medicaments and the power of the Kabbalah against the disease.
"The possible relations between the study of the Cabala and the practice of medicine are well illustrated by the case of Johann Pistorius of Nidde (1546-1608). In the preface to a pest tract of 1568 he had attacked the blind worship of Hippocrates, Galen and antiquity which, he said, had been too prevalent in the sixteenth century thus far. He argued that as the ancients in their day had advanced natural science, so modern men were not so weak-minded that they could make no further new discoveries. He felt that at present there was a keener spirit of investigation in the air. In the text he recommended metallic and alchemical medicines, the bezoar stone, occult medicaments, the bone from the heart of a stag, the stone from the head of an asp, and the chick of a stork, not yet able to fly but already feathered, burned alive to ashes in an earthen pot, taken with wine, as most efficacious for the pest. Another ingredient in one of his compounds was one hundred and eighty scorpions captured at the rising of Sirius. A remedy of pure quintessences prepared from one hundred and fifty simples in such artful proportions that it seemed sent from the sky, he refused to divulge further at present. He discussed for some eight pages, however, the question whether there was curative power in words […] Nearly twenty years later Pistorius began the publication of his library of writers on the Cabala but does not seem to have carried it farther than the first volume. He says he began to study the doctrine of the Cabala when little more than a boy and collected many books on it in Hebrew and Latin. Of these he now printed Reuchlin's De verbo mirifico and De arte cabalistica, Riccio's De coelesti agricultura, Archangelus de Burgo Novo, Leo Hebraeus De amore, rabbi Joseph's Gate of Light, and one or two other treatises. Fourteen years later Pistorius was attacked by Jacob Heilbronner in a work entitled Daemonomania Pistoriana and dedicated to Frederick, duke of Wurtemberg and Tech, and count of Montbéliard (1593-1608). This title rather suggests a book on witchcraft or a collection of exorcisms, but the sub-title reads, 'A Magical and Cabalistic Method of Curing Disease by Johann Pistorius of Nidde, once doctor of medicine, now of papist theology, drawn from Jewish and Gentile ditches and then offered to Christians to drink. With a Prophylactic Antidote by Jacob Heilbronner, doctor of theology'. In short, it is not even primarily an attack upon the cabalistic library of Pistorius but upon his pest tract. The animus of the attack, however, seems to be found in large measure in the fact that Pistorius had changed his religion and had written against Luther. Heilbronner says that from a physician Pistorius became a politician, from a politician a theologian, from a Lutheran a Calvinist, from a Calvinist a papist. Pistorius turned Calvinist in 1575, and became a Catholic after 1586. Heilbronner has found this magical book which Pistorius wrote while practicing medicine, in which he asserts that there is power in words and names to cure disease, and talks of, a ladder of angels, three horizons, and the Cabala of the rabbis. Heilbronner declares that all pious men believe that good and holy angels of God lend no aid to magical and theurgical incantations, characters, words, names and letters, even the Tetragrammaton. The inference is that Pistorius has for many years been an associate of demons. The following statements ascribed to Pistorius by Heilbronner are in fact all contained in the section of his pest tract above mentioned. To the three chief parts of medical cure-diet, drugs and surgery - he would add a fourth, the power of certain words. He speaks of fifty gates of intelligences and of marvelous power which emanates thence in words. 'Nature first exercised magic in the voice. Therefore magic resides especially in words'. The Cabala is the tree of rarity and most solemn discipline. Consequently Pistorius is convinced that there are great operative forces in certain words, and that this discipline of names is worthy of priests, philosophers and kings. Such was the effect of mixing too much Cabala with medicine" (L. Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science, New York, 1941, V, pp. 461-463).
"At a time when he [Pistorius] was primarily concerned with medicine, he published a treatise, De vera curandae pestis ratione liber unus (Frankfurt 1568), in which, to the three main means of treatment - diet (dietetics), drugs (pharmacy) and surgery - he added the healing power of sacred words in the final chapter, De praeservatione et curatione per medicamenta occulta. In interpreting this method of treatment, he draws on Kabbalistic cosmology - he hierarchises the world through the symbol of Jacob's ladder, culminating in Ejn Sof - the unknowable foundation of the universe - and made up of four levels. The first step represents nature (Natura), the second the horizon of time and infinite eternity (Horizon temporis et infinitae aeternatis), the third the horizon of temporal eternity (Horizon aeternitatis temporis) and the fourth the horizon of the supreme world (Horizon mundi supersupremi). This is followed by an explanation of the fifty cabalistic gates. Nature first works its magic with the voice, so magic lies primarily in words. Pistorius makes it clear that this power will not be understood by those who don't know the 32 ways of wisdom. Pistorius' medical treatise was subjected to extensive criticism 33 years after its publication by the aforementioned Jacob Heilbronner in Daemonomania Pistoriana (1601) [...] [but] Pistorius' occult medical theories had already been criticised [also] by the physician Andreas Libavius (after 1555-1616) in his Tractatus duo de physici, prior de impostoria vulnerum per unguentum armarium sanatione Paracelsis usitata commendataque (Frankfurt, 1594)" (I. Purš, Emperor Rudolf II's Patronage of Alchemy. Michael Maier (1569-1622) and Anselmus Boëthius de Boodt (1550-1632), Dissertation thesis, Charles University, Prague, 2011, pp. 70-73).
Johann Pistorius, sometimes called Niddanus from the name of his birthplace (Nidda in Hesse), the son of a Protestant minister, Johann Pistorius the Elder (1502-1583), studied theology, law and medicine at Marburg and Wittenberg between 1559 and 1567. In 1575 he was appointed court physician to Margrave Charles II of Baden-Durlach, who also sought his advice on political and theological matters. Pistorius converted from Lutheranism to Calvinism and influenced Margrave Ernst Friedrich of Baden-Durlach in this choice. However, he soon became dissatisfied with Calvinism too and converted again in 1588, this time to Catholicism. In 1584 he became a councillor to Margrave Jacob III of Baden-Hochberg in Emmendingen. At his request, Margrave Jacob organised the religious disputations of Baden (1589) and Emmendingen (1590), after which the court preacher Johannes Zehender and the margrave himself became Catholics. When Jacob died in 1590, his Protestant brother Ernst Friedrich succeeded him and Pistorius was forced to leave. He went to Freiburg im Breisgau, became a priest in 1591, then vicar-general of Constance until 1594, then imperial councillor, cathedral provost of Breslau, apostolic prothonotary, and, in 1600, confessor and physician to Emperor Rudolf II, whom Pistorius helped to recover from a serious breakdown, also with the help of Kabbalistic and alchemical remedies, which he had begun to study many years earlier in his treatise on the plague. After his death, Pistorius' library was given to the Jesuits of Molsheim and later to the theological seminary of Strasbourg. He died in 1608 in Freiburg.
Pistorius wrote several harsh pamphlets against Protestantism, as well as a detailed account of the conversion of Margrave Jakob, and was therefore violently attacked by protestant writers such as S. Huber, C. Spangenberg, B. Mentzer, and Ch. Agricola. He also dedicated himself to cabalistic studies, publishing a Artis cabbalisticae […] tomus primus (Basle, 1587). As court historiographer to the Margrave of Baden, he investigated the genealogy of the princely house of Zähringen and also published, among other things, two works on historical sources: Polonicae historiae corpus (Basle, 1582), and Rerum Germanicarum veteres jam primum publicati scriptores (Frankfurt, 1583-1607) (cf. H.J. Günther, Die Reformation und ihre Kinder. Vater und Sohn Johannes Pistorius Niddanus. Eine Doppel-Biographie, Nidda, 1994).
II (Imsser). Extremely rare first edition (reprinted in Strasbourg in 1582) of this very interesting treatise on the plague written for the poor craftsmen and peasants who had no access to doctors and pharmacists and were afflicted in their life by other difficulties caused by poverty.
The astronomer Philipp Imsser or Imser was a pupil of Johannes Stöffler (1452-1531). After the latter's death, he took over his chair created in 1507, published his work Ephemeridum opus and took over his reference library, some of whose books are now in the Badische Landesbibliothek in Karlsruhe. Imsser taught at the University of Tübingen until 1557, but as he initially refused to join the Reformation, he had to suspend his teaching activities for about two years in 1535. In 1556, together with E.O. Schreckenfuchs, he published a commentary on the planetary theory of Georg Peuerbach (1423-1461). In 1557 he retired from teaching and devoted himself to the construction of automata and, in particular, of an astronomical clock for the Elector Ottheinrich of the Palatinate. The prince commissioned it in 1554, but did not live to see its completion in 1560. In addition to the time and seasons, the clock shows the orbits of the planets – with the earth at the center - and moving figures. It was sold to Emperor Ferdinand I in 1561 and is now in the Technisches Museum in Vienna. Imsser also wrote treatises on Euclidean (Introductorium Geometricum ex Euclide aliisque eius scientiae scriptoribus, 1533) and practical geometry, probably based on his lectures at Tübingen (G. Betsch, Praxis geometrica und Kartographie at the Universität Tübingen im 16. und frühen 17. Jahhundert, in: "Zum 400. Geburtstag von Wilhelm Schickard: zweites Tübinger Schickard-Sympsion", F. Seck, ed., Sigmaringen, 1995, p. 206).
III (Schnellenberg). Ninth edition, but the first printed in Strasbourg (first printed in Frankfurt in 1552, 1553, 1554, 1555, 1556, 1557, 1563 and 1566), of this incredibly popular manual containing recipes with twenty different spices and herbs to cure and prevent the plague (Angelica, Aaron, Alant, Braun Bethonien, Bibenellen, Weiss Diptam, Erenpreiss/Rolerkraut, Roter Encian, Liedstöckel, Lorbeeren, Meisterwurtz, Osterlucey, Pestemen, Rauten, Ross Bappeln, Sauwrampffer, Edle Tormentilla, Baldrran, Wermüth, and Wacholder), plus an appendix on Saffran.
There are no extant copies of an alleged 1546 first edition, which is perhaps a ghost considering that its date coincides with that of the preface which appears in all editions.
"The Experimenta, on the other hand, are written entirely in the spirit of Otto Brunfels and Hieronymus Bock, and even the proverbs and fundamental theorems of Hippocrates, Galen, etc., which are repeatedly quoted, are taken from these books and from the above-mentioned authors. This, however, does not rob the Experimenta of their freshness and popular value […] Schnellenberg was, after all, a free creator who was at the height of his task and who wanted to deliver, and did deliver, a book for the masses. And in my opinion he had written down the recipes for the 20 pestilential roots long before Brunfels and Bock" (F. Tetzner, Tarquinius Schnellenbergs Werke, in: "Beiträge zur Geschichte Dortmunds und der Grafschaft Mark", 17, 1909, pp. 92-93).
Tarquinius Schnellenberg (or Ocyorus, from the Latin ociter, ocior - fast, quicker) was born in Attendorn in Westphalia. He must have been born some time before 1500, as we know of "calendars" by him for the years 1509 and 1513. He enrolled at the University of Cologne on 27 November 1515. From the Experimenta it can be concluded that Schnellenberg acquired his medical knowledge on his travels through Germany as a travelling physician, relying on observation and experience. Occasionally he gives dates and places, e.g. in 1519 he was a plague doctor in Saxony. He then worked in Magdeburg, Elbingerode, the Harz Mountains, Hainleite and Braunschweig. In the 1530s he worked in Erfurt and in 1536/37 he is documented as medical advisor to Count Heinrich XXXII of Schwarzburg. It was in Erfurt that he made the acquaintance of the Friesian poet Cyprian Stapert (Vomelius, 1515-1578), who was also a mathematician and jurist and, in 1543, vice-chancellor of the Latin School in Dortmund. Schnellenberg lived in Nordhausen from 1538, working as 'senate physician' with an annual salary of 40 gulden. In 1540 he was awarded a doctorate in medicine in Cologne. Around 1544 he moved to Dortmund, where he practised medicine until 1549. In 1554 he is mentioned as a doctor in Unna. He died in 1561 in Travemünde.
Schnellenberg was a pioneer of popular health education and empirical science. Through his poetry, Schnellenberg was also important for Low German folklore and linguistics. As a physician, it was Schnellenberg's task to compile annual almanacs: calendars from 1509 (presumably wall calendars) and a "Diarium" for 1548 are known by him, as well as other works such as the Practica Deutsch (1545), the Wetterbüchlein (1549) and the Wundartzneibuch (1549). (cf. F. Tetzner, Tarquinius Schnellenberg, in: "Zeitschrift des Vereins für rheinische und westfälische Volkskunde", 5, 1908, pp. 1-46 and 6, 1909, pp. 241-258).
IV (Wecker). First edition of this very successful book of secrets, reprinted by Perna in 1570, 1571, 1573, 1576 and 1581, and by Waldkirch in 1593.
"Johann Jacob Wecker (1528-1586), city physician of Colmar, was an important and hitherto little-studied player in the production of compilations [of books of secrets]. Wecker's publishing career began in 1559 with a translation of De Secretis del reverendo Donno Alessio Piemontese [alias Girolamo Ruscelli], published by Sigismondo Bordogna in Bologna in 1555. The book sold like hot cakes and was reprinted over 270 times in various editions and published in German, English, French, Dutch, Latin, Spanish and Polish until the 18th century. Wecker was one of the most important book-makers in this context, not only because he translated the De Secretis into Latin and German - over a hundred editions have survived - but also because he added a great deal of knowledge to the existing material. His Latin editions in particular contributed to the international reception of the De Secretis. Wecker's publications, in turn, were translated into German, French and English, and continued to be published well into the 18th century. This long-lasting and widespread reception makes Wecker's publishing activity historically significant […] In 1569 the eighth book of Ruscelli's De Secretis libri VI was separated from its context, translated and published separately under the title Ein nutzliches Büchlein von mancherley künstlichen wasseren, ölen, unnd weinen [...]. By separating it from De Secretis libri VI, the reference to Piemontese was also omitted. Thanks to this separation of the text, a new book was created which, at first sight, has nothing in common with the De Secretis libri VI: the eighth book of the De Secretis of 1563 can be considered as a single part that was woven into the De Secretis and later removed from it and newly translated and published. This addition, removal and republication shows that the De Secretis was not a fixed mass of texts that were published again and again. Rather, it was fluid and could be changed as a whole or in parts, and in different forms and languages. This allowed the number of books, and thus the knowledge that could be disseminated through them, to multiply. In the example just considered, an increase in knowledge took place in De Secretis libri VI itself through the addition of a book. By extracting it and translating it into German, the knowledge it contained was made available to people who had no knowledge of Latin, thus reaching a new, wider readership. It was also less voluminous than De Secretis and therefore more affordable for a wider audience. This kind of decoupling, whether through translation or not, contributed greatly to the proliferation of the books of secrets" (S. Zweifel, Aus Büchern Bücher Machen. Zur Produktion und Multiplikation von Wissen in Frühneuzeitlichen Kompilationen, Berlin-Boston, 2022, pp. 3-4, 187-188).
Johann Jacob Wecker studied medicine from 1544 in Basle, his hometown, Wittenberg, and Bologna, where he obtained his doctorate. Back to Basle, he began there a career as general practitioner. In 1557 he was also appointed full professor of dialectics. He left Basle in 1566 to take up a post as city physician in Colmar, where he remained until his death. He was married to the poet and cookbook author Anna Wecker, who posthumously published his Antidotarium speciale (Basle, 1588). In addition to his medical practice, Wecker was a very prolific writer on medicine, philosophy, chemistry and alchemy, publishing nearly thirty works between 1559 and his death in 1586, including the Medicae syntaxes (Basle, 1562), the Antidotarium generale (Basle, 1580) and the Praecepta artis oratoriae (Basle, 1582). He also published several "De Secretis" or books of secrets, collections of recipes for medicinal and health products such as soaps, paints, distilled water, lotions, perfumes, foods and drinks. Wecker's editions range from simple translations of Girolamo Ruscelli's highly successful book of secrets to more original reworkings of texts of the genre, culminating in his 1582 edition of De Secretis libri XVII, which draws its content from 129 different authors, including Albertus Magnus, Alexander Pedemontanus (alias Alessio Piemontese, alias Girolamo Ruscelli), Avicenna, Cleopatra, Gabriele Falloppio, Felix Platter, Galen, Konrad Gesner, Hermes Trismegistus and Paracelsus, and which combines knowledge from a wide variety of fields and traditions, from antiquity to his time. These text collections were created by bringing together different texts by different authors, arranging them in a new order and giving them a new context, and thus creating new books (cf. S. Zweifel, Ein Blick hinter die Produktion von Kompilationen im 16. Jahrhundert am Beispiel Johann Jacob Weckers, in: "Jahrbuch für Kommunikationsgeschichte", 20, 2018, pp. 27-41).
I. VD16, P-3054; Durling, 3670; Wellcome Library, 5057; II. VD16, I-102; III. VD16, S-3254; Durling, 4130; IV. VD16, W-1364; Durling, 4717. (Inventory #: 212)