Alexis Piémontois. [i.e. Girolamo Ruscelli et Etienne Michel]. Les secrets du S. Alexis Piemontois, devisez en six livres, reveuz de nouveau sur le dernier exemplaire Italien, & augmentez d’un liure de Distillations non par cy devant imprimé. Le tout reduit en lieux communs, pour plus facilement trouver chacune matiere en son rang & ordre. Lyon, Loys Cloquemin, and Estienne Michel, 1572. In-16. 940, [18] pp. (Sign : a-x8, A-X8, Aa-Nn8, Oo7). Printer’s mark on title page, 6 woodcuts in the text, decorative headpieces and initial letters. Modern full vellum binding, long spine with title in ink, 4 fastening straps, red speckled edges.
‘A very rare work’ (Caillet) attributed to the alchemist Girolamo Ruscelli (1500-1566) published under the pseudonym Alexis de Piémont. Caillet cites only Guillaume Roville’s Lyon edition for 1572, noting that ‘the Livre des Distillations, which appears in this edition for the first time, is illustrated with a number of woodcuts.’ He then notes that “this work can be classified among those of high hermetic philosophy. It contains many useful things about metals, their dissolution, calcination and purification. It contains admirable occult secrets, and several people who have tried it claim that the results obtained are prodigious.” It is a kind of compilation of secret recipes for making remedies, lotions, pigments, imitation gemstones, etc., which gave rise to a new literary genre.
The copy is complete, with the epistles from the first and second editions at the beginning, as well as the address to the reader and the table of contents at the end. The sixth and final book is illustrated with wood engravings depicting alembics and other instruments necessary for distillation.
Caillet, 178 (in Lyon, at Roville, same year) ; is missing from Dorbon Duveen and Ferguson, who cite only editions from the following century ; Barbier, Anonymes, 16897 ; Brunet, Supplément, I, 23.
Slightly trimmed at the top without affecting the text. Pale water stains. Skilful restoration on the title page. A good copy nonetheless.
1 300 €