Albertus Magnus | A very rare popular vernacular compilation of the works, Strasbourg, 1548

Albertus Magnus

Natvralia Alberti Magni darinn durch sechsz kürze Büchlin viel Haimligkaiten de Natur beschrieben. Von Weibern und gebürten de Kinder Auch lebendiger abcontrafactur ettlicher Kreuter … Alles von newem gebessert durch Q. Apollinarem [that is, Walther Hermann Ryff]. (Strasbourg: Jacob Cammerlander, 1548)

4to (193 x 144 mm). Gothic types. Large woodcut title vignette of the author at his desk, captioned “Ja. Camerlander,” woodcut printer's device on final page, 6 large or full-page woodcut illustrations (including a blood-letting man), 97 text woodcuts (including 71 botanical subjects, 17 obstetrical subjects, and 7 zodiacal figures), some text cuts printed sideways or with strip-borders, 7 woodcut head- and tailpieces; some light marginal dampstaining, occasional minor spotting, paper flaw in upper fore-edge corner of M1. Contemporary pigskin over beveled beech boards, pigskin decorated in blind with evangelists-roll, front board diapered in blind, lower (of two) brass catches retained on front board, plain endpapers and edges; clasps and rear free endpaper lost, front inner hinge split, some minor scuffing. Half blue morocco folding-case.

A very attractive copy of the second edition of Ryff’s wildly popular vernacular compilation of the works of Albertus Magnus, covering mineralogy, botany, zoology, and obstetrics. The majority of Ryff's texts are translations of parts of De secretis mulierum and Liber aggregationis; the fifth and sixth books comprise anonymous treatises on medicinal waters and proper diet during plague time. The woodcuts derive from a variety of sources: Egenolff's reduced copies of Hans Weiditz's cuts for Brunfels inspired the botanical cuts; Rösslin's Der Schwangeren Frawen und Hebammen Rosegarten was the basis for the obstetrical illustrations; and Strassburg editions of Brunschwig's Chirurgia and Destillierbuch supplied some of the large genre scenes.

First published in 1545, Naturalia was in wide demand by readers for two centuries: Benzing's bibliography of Ryff records thirty-three editions published by 1734. All editions are now scarce, and apart from the present and a defective copy included in a lot in 1990, Rare Book Hub records no other copies of the 1548 second edition.

REFERENCES

Benzing 28; Chrisman, Strasbourg Imprints S1.7.23; Nissen BBI 12a; Ritter 31. This edition not in Adams, Durling, Wellcome, or Waller

PROVENANCE

Early inscription at foot of title giving imprint details and referring to colophon — faded nineteenth-century inkstamp on π2r — Kenneth K. Mackenzie (October 1934 bequest bookplate, to) — The Horticultural Society of New York (blindstamp on H4, pencilled call number at foot of title-page verso) — Robert de Belder (en bloc purchase of HSNY rare books) — Ladislaus von Hoffman (Christie's East, New York, 5 June 1997, “An Important Botanical Library, The Property of a Gentleman,” lot 166) — Joseph A. Freilich (booklabel; Sotheby's New York, 10 January 2001, lot 20) — Christie’s London, 20 November 2002, lot 58 (undesignated consignor)