ALCHEMY
SENDIVOGIUS (MICHAEL) 1650.

A New Light of Alchymie: Taken out of the Fountaine of Nature, and Manual Experience… a Treatise on Sulphur… Also a Chymicall Dictionary Explaining Hard Places and Words Met Withall in the Writings of Paracelsus, and Other Obscure Authors… translated out of the Latin into the English Tongue, by J.F., 3 parts in one vol., first edition in English, some dampstaining and soiling, worming in margins (occasionally touching text), lacks gathering 3b in final section, contemporary calf, joints split, extremities worn [Wing S2506; Duveen, p.544; Ferguson I, 257], 4to, Richard Cotes, for Thomas Williams, 1650

AMULETIC SCROLL OF THE ALCHEMIST JOHANNES MICHAEL, in German and Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [Germany, late 16th or early 17th century]

A scroll (5 membranes), 2710mm. by 95mm., with coloured roundels on the obverse containing complex alchemical talismans, each above a line or so of text in cursive black ink in German or Latin explaining their use, on the reverse a number of prayers and prayer-like texts listing names of Evangelists and alchemical terms, and naming the owner of the scroll in lighter brown ink as Johannes Michael, these texts separated by elaborate crosses and roundels.

CATALOGUE NOTE
This scroll is an alchemist’s practical reference tool from the greatest years of the study of this philosophical and pseudo-chemical art. It lists some 34 designs for alchemical talismans (presumably to be painted on walls, doors or the body), littered with the traditional symbols for mercury, copper, gold and at the head of one of the larger talismans, the elusive philosopher’s stone locked within the Seal of Solomon. The simple talismans at the beginning of the scroll offer protection against neid und haß (anger and hate), den bösen geiß (the evil spirits) and Zauberij (witchcraft). Those at the end incorportate a number of simple units as well as symbols taken from an angelic alphabet (evidently influenced by the so-called Alphabet of the Magi invented by the celebrated astronomer and alchemist Paracelsus, 1493-1541), and offer more specific protection against failure in war and imprisonment.

fuckyeahbookarts:

Rachael Ashe. [details here]

Lovely representation of the art of alchemy.

I absolutely love this!

Alchemy: Seals of the Seven Planets In German, Latin, and Hebrew, illustrated manuscript on paper [Germany, late 16th century]

Of a modest appearance, this small manuscript, written in cursive script and illustrated with meticulous pen and ink drawings, is most likely a manual for the composition of talismans or seals perhaps for use by a physician-alchemist. Its pages present a combination of astrological seals with diagrammatic talismans in Greek and Hebrew letters along the lines of those created by Agrippa and Paracelsius.

This manuscript belongs to the tradition of German esoterica with a particular importance accorded to the asters and the planets for their use in natural magic….. by its date and its fabrication, seems to be most probably a practical handbook accompanying a medical alchemist for the realization of astrological seals.

B-A note: There is an extensive description of the manuscript, along with analysis and historical context, at the link. It’s too long to print here, but is very interesting to anyone interested in 15th - 17th century esoterica / occultism.

via TextManuscripts

Etidorhpa or the End of Earth, Signed Limited 1st Edition. by John Uri Lloyd.

Cincinnati: John Uri Lloyd 1895. Octavo 18 x 26.5 cm 376pp. Limited first edition signed by the author at the end of a two-page (printed) letter prior to the title page as issued. Original brown cloth over bevelled boards decorated in silver and gilt. Portrait frontispiece; illustrations by J. Augustus Knapp. via Powell’s Rare Books

I had to dig around and ended up at Wikipedia to find out what this book actually contains. From wiki: “The book purports to be a manuscript dictated by a strange being named I-Am-The-Man to a man named Llewyllyn Drury. Drury’s adventure culminates in a trek through a cave in Kentucky into the core of the earth. Ideas presented in Etidorhpa include practical Alchemy, secret Masonic orders, the Hollow Earth theory and the concept of transcending the physical realm.”.