Roquetaillade. 1549. La vertu et la propriété de la quinte essence
[ROQUETAILLADE, Jean de]. RUPESCISSA, Joannes de.
La vertu et la propriété de la quinte essence de toutes choses.
Lyon, Jean de Tournes, 1549.
2000 €
Small 8vo (167x104 mm), 155-(1)-(4 bl.) pages.
binding: Full antic style vellum.
Light waterstains, a little soiled.
Rare first french edition of this alchemical work.
" Rupescissa (Jean de Roquetaillade, fl.1345-56) was a celebrated alchimist who lived at Aurillac in Aquitaine and was buried at Villefranche near Lyons. Thorndike (III, 347-369) devotes a whole chapter to this important "chemist and prophet." The consideration of the Fifth Essence" is his chief writing on alchemy. "This work possessed a marked individuality both in expression and arrangement, distinguishing it from other medieval alchemical treatises, and it created a correspondingly profond and wide impression" (Thorndike).
Rupescissa is now considered the founder of medical chemistry on the basis of the present work, which centers on the "elixir of youth" that the author found in the medicinal and preservative properties of ethyl alcohol (aqua ardens) " (Neville)
This first french edition is rare. Not in Caillet, Dorbon, Duveen, Neville, Guaita, Rota.
references: Neville [II, p.407 (2nd lat. edition)], Caillet [III, 9580 (2nd fr. ed.), Ferguson [II, 306].
