Lot 90
90
BECHER, Johann Joachim (1635-1682). Physica Subterranea Profundam Genesin, e principis hucusque ignotis, ostendens, Leipzig: ex officina Weidmanniana, 1738, 4°, engraved frontispieces (with two ink stamps on verso), title in red and black (with perforation and ink stamp on recto, and further stamp on verso, frontispiece and title short at outer margin and probably supplied from another copy, accession number on page following, perforation repeated on 4G3, text browned throughout), library buckram [Ferguson I. p. 89 (no copy in Young collection); Duveen p. 59] -- Philip MULLER (b. 1585). Miracula & Mysteria Chymico-Medica ... editio quarta, Wittenberg: sumptibus Clement. Bergeri, typis Johannis Haken, 1623, 12°, title in red and black with woodcut surround, 12 woodcut illustrations of apparatus (title torn with slight loss to border and restored at outer margin, border also affected by worm-hole, A5 defective at lower margin, preliminaries wormed slightly affecting bottom line of text, severe and unsightly marginal worming of D11-E6, final leaf repaired at margins, browned throughout), contemporary vellum (rebacked, preserving old spine, tightly bound, library markings). [Duveen p. 416; Ferguson II, p. 115-6] Provenance: I. Lehigh University Library (stamp on title); JCL II. JCL; together with Johann Juncker's Conspectus Chemiae (Halle, 1730-38, 2 volumes), lacking frontispiece, and John Belye's Tractatus Duo Chemici (Geismar, 1647), lacking 48 pages. (5)

Details
BECHER, Johann Joachim (1635-1682). Physica Subterranea Profundam Genesin, e principis hucusque ignotis, ostendens, Leipzig: ex officina Weidmanniana, 1738, 4°, engraved frontispieces (with two ink stamps on verso), title in red and black (with perforation and ink stamp on recto, and further stamp on verso, frontispiece and title short at outer margin and probably supplied from another copy, accession number on page following, perforation repeated on 4G3, text browned throughout), library buckram [Ferguson I. p. 89 (no copy in Young collection); Duveen p. 59] -- Philip MULLER (b. 1585). Miracula & Mysteria Chymico-Medica ... editio quarta, Wittenberg: sumptibus Clement. Bergeri, typis Johannis Haken, 1623, 12°, title in red and black with woodcut surround, 12 woodcut illustrations of apparatus (title torn with slight loss to border and restored at outer margin, border also affected by worm-hole, A5 defective at lower margin, preliminaries wormed slightly affecting bottom line of text, severe and unsightly marginal worming of D11-E6, final leaf repaired at margins, browned throughout), contemporary vellum (rebacked, preserving old spine, tightly bound, library markings). [Duveen p. 416; Ferguson II, p. 115-6] Provenance: I. Lehigh University Library (stamp on title); JCL II. JCL; together with Johann Juncker's Conspectus Chemiae (Halle, 1730-38, 2 volumes), lacking frontispiece, and John Belye's Tractatus Duo Chemici (Geismar, 1647), lacking 48 pages. (5)

Lot Essay

Becher was an iatrochemist and alchemist known to have influenced George Ernst Stahl, the chemist who developed the concept of terra pinguis into the phlogiston theory. Duveen notes that "this is the last edition of Becher's most famous work," which appeared first in 1703, and "is the only one published in 4to." As Ferguson observes, Müller's book, first published in 1610, also "passed through a large number of editions both by itself and along with the Tyrocinium of Beguinus and tracts by Sendivogius. The book is pharmaceutical, and contains the preparation of a number of substances, amongst which (p. 66) is 'Terra foliata secretissima' (potassium acetate)."

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