HELMONT, Jan Baptista van (?1578-1644). Medicinae id est initia physicae inaudita, Lyon: J. B. Devenet, 1655, 2 parts in one volume, 2°, first part fourth edition, second part fifth edition, half title, engraved title, second part with separate title, headpieces (stain to verso of B2 affecting 5 lines of text, inner margin of the first ca. 70 leaves and last 40 leaves dampstained, marginal worming, a few leaves browned), modern calf. [Blake, p. 543; Wellcome III, p. 241]

Details

HELMONT, Jan Baptista van (?1578-1644). Medicinae id est initia physicae inaudita, Lyon: J. B. Devenet, 1655, 2 parts in one volume, 2°, first part fourth edition, second part fifth edition, half title, engraved title, second part with separate title, headpieces (stain to verso of B2 affecting 5 lines of text, inner margin of the first ca. 70 leaves and last 40 leaves dampstained, marginal worming, a few leaves browned), modern calf. [Blake, p. 543; Wellcome III, p. 241]

Lot Essay

Part II is entitled Opuscula medica inaudita. Van Helmont "postulated the theory that digestion resembled fermentation in being brought about by a ferment ... [his] guesses, for they were little more, were curiously near what we now believe to be the facts, but they attracted little attention at the time because of the obscure and pseudo-mystical style in which the original Latin publication of 1648 was written" (Drummond & Wilbraham, p. 150).

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