Le Demosterion.
Rennes, [J. du Clos] for P. Le Bret 1578.
4to. [xvi], 190 [r. 202], [2 blank]p. and TWO FOLDING PLATES WITH LETTERPRESS AND WOODCUTS. One nearly full-page chiromantic woodcut, two divisional titles.
Contemporary vellum (soiled and stained), later manuscript spine title, evidence of four pigskin ties, slightly overlapping edges, ruled in red.
Only Antiquarian Edition. Half in French and half in Latin, the Demosterion presents an introduction to Paracelsian medicine, a distillation of its principles into three hundred bilingual aphorisms, a work on divination, a dictionary of terms, a chiromantic essay and a balneological and mineralogical description of Brittany. Together, the texts address alchemy, geomancy, astrology, ethics, dietetics, physiology, pathology and cures for ulcers, leprosy, edema, plague, gout and paralysis.
Schematic, the first plate outlines ailments and their cures according to Paracelsian principles. The second plate has a large woodcut with the Moon phases of a sidereal month, noting enterprises and therapies favored on each day along with astrological influences.
In good condition (ink spots on the plates); two contemporary title inscriptions (one dated 1579), 19th-century manuscript shelf labels.
¶Trevor-Roper, “The sieur de la Rivière, Paracelsian physician to Henri IV” in Science, Medicine, and Society in the Renaissance: Essays to Honor W. Pagel ed. Debus II: 227-50; Baudry, Contribution à l’étude du paracelsisme en France au XVIe siècle (1560-1580)…Le Demosterion de Roch Le Baillif passim & 217,2; Sudhoff, Bibliographia paracelsica 181a n.; Duveen, Bibliotheca alchemica 343-4 “very rare”; Brunet III: 897 “rare et curieux”.
Price: $17,500.00