Glauber, Johann Rudolf | A Description of new Philosophical Furnaces, or a new Art of Distilling

Glauber, Johann Rudolph

A Description of new Philosophical Furnaces, or a new Art of Distilling, divided into five parts. Whereunto is added a Description of the Tincture of Gold also, the first part of the Mineral Work. Translated into English by John French. London: Richard Coats for Thomas Williams, 1651-52

4to (181 x 133 mm). Several woodcuts of furnaces and apparatus in text; title soiled and restored along fore-margin, with some letters supplied in pen facsimile, some browning throughout, old ink stain on some fore-margins. Modern sheep antique.

First edition in English of Glauber’s Furni novi philosophici (the Latin first issued was published in Amsterdam, 1646-49), De auri tinctura (1646), and the first part of Opus mincrale (1650). The Furni novi philosophici is Glauber's principal work and has been described by Ferguson as "certainly one of the most remarkable books on chemistry of the seventeenth century" (Ferguson I, p.329).

REFERENCES

Wing G846; Duveen p. 252; ESTC R202215; Kress 822; Norman I, 909

PROVENANCE

Thomas Long (early signature on title) — Peter Chadlocke(?) (early signature on title deleted) — James Elliot, professor of astronomy, London (ownership inscription on flyleaves and title-page dated 1796) — Denis Duveen (bookplate) — Haskell F, Norman (bookplate, Christie’s New York, 15 June 1998, lot 470)