Description:

17th & 18th C. Europe
Venice; Wittenberg; London; Madrid, ca. 1614-1781
From Marriage, Monuments, and Medicine to Whales and the Kingdom of the Apes: European Works in Latin, English, and Spanish
Archive

[EUROPE.] Archive of Books, 1614-1781. 5 works, 1,308 pp.

This small archive of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century books covers a wide array of topics, including the Catholic sacrament of marriage, ancient Roman monuments in Belgium, the origins of ambergris, medicines used in the hospitals of London, and a fanciful Italian science-fiction novel.

Highlights and Excerpts
- Thomas Sanchez, Disputationum de Sto Matrimonii Sacramento, 2 vols. Venice: Iannem Guerilium, 1614. In Latin. xlviii + 402 + 425 pp., 9" x 13.5". Two volumes bound as one; lacking spine; covers detached; first 6 pp. of vol. 1 and final 22 pp. of vol. 2 present but detached; some toning, but text block generally clean.
Disputations on the Holy Sacrament of Marriage is a multi-volume work first published in Genoa in 1602-1603. Some editions of the third volume were placed on the Index of Prohibited Books (active, 1560-1966) due to the perceived perversion of the work and suppression of the author's teachings. The edition published in Venice in 1614 omitted the third volume.
Thomas Sanchez (1550-1610) was born in Spain. A speech impediment initially prevented his admittance to the Society of Jesus, but he prayed before a picture of Mary at Cordoba and was delivered from it. He entered the Jesuit order in 1567 and devoted the rest of his life to self-perfection and scholarship. His chief work was the Disputationes de sancto matrimonii sacramento.

- Lorenzo Pignoria, Magnae Deum Matris Idaeae & Attidis initia: ex vetustis monumentis nuper Tornaci erutis. Venice: Sumptibus Petri Pauli Tossij 1624. In Latin; 6 illustrations, 2 of which are full-page. 24 pp., 7.25" x 9.5". String-bound, with stiff paper cover; soiling to cover; edge toning.
This brief volume describes the ancient Gallo-Roman monuments discovered in the vicinity of Tournai in the Walloon Region of Belgium.
Lorenzo Pignoria (1571-1631) was an Italian priest, historian, and antiquarian with an interest in the sciences. Born in Padua, he studied humanities and philosophy with the Jesuits there. In 1602, he was consecrated a priest. He served as secretary to the Bishop of Padua. He later directed various religious houses and was appointed the curate of Saint-Laurent. He used his leisure time to study antiquity and to write. He was also a friend of astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564-1642).

- Justus Fidus Klobius, Ambrae Historiam ad Omnipotentis Dei Gloriam, et Hominum Sanitatem. Wittenberg: Tobias Mevius and Elerdus Schumacher, 1666. In Latin; 4 engraved illustrations, 2 of which fold out. viii + 76 pp., 6.25" x 7.5". Disbound; soiling and toning throughout; some minor edge tears.
First published in 1660, this work explores eighteen possible theories for the origin of ambergris, including that it came from hardened bird excrement from Madagascar or whale excrement. Although sometimes confused as both were used in perfumery and medicine, amber is fossilized tree resin, while ambergris is a substance produced in the digestive system of sperm whales.
Justus Fidus Klobius was a scientist and teacher at the Academy of Wittenberg.

- Henry Banyer, Pharmacopoeia Pauperum: Or, The Hospital Dispensatory: Containing the chief Medicines Now used in the Hospitals of London; with Suitable Instructions for their Common Use, 3d enlarged ed. London: F. Faram, 1729. In Latin and English. iv +128 pp., 3.875" x 6.5". Lacking spine; general toning; light water stains.
"The former Edition of this small Book having been favourably received, I am encouraged to add a farther Collection of Receipts, which are such as may very properly come under the Title of a Pharmacopoeia Pauperum, being no way inferior to the others, either for Cheapness or Efficacy. The Method I have taken in explaining the Vertues and Uses of each Prescription, cannot, I hope, give any just Offence to the ingenious Composers thereof, who, as they designed them for the Publick Good will by this Means have the Satisfaction of seeing them drawn out into a more general Practice; and as for any Cavils which maybe raised by those who are for preserving the same Narrowness of Principles in Physick, as some of our modern Christians would do in Religion, I am under no Concern for them...." (iii-iv)
Henry Banyer (fl. 1717-1743) studied at St. John's Hospital and practiced as a physician at Wisbeach, a market town in Cambridgeshire, England. In 1736, he was admitted as an extraordinary licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians in London. In addition to this volume, first published in 1721, he wrote Methodical Introduction to the Art of Surgery (1717).
The book includes multiple ownership signatures on the front and rear blank pages, including those of Connecticut physicians, Dr. Benjamin Ellis (1751-1825) of Norwich; his mentor, Dr. Joshua Downer (1735-1795) of Preston; and Dr. Benjamin Wheate (1709-1758) of Norwich.
George Washington had a copy of Banyer's Pharmacopoeia in his library at Mount Vernon in the 1760s.

- Viages de Enrique Wanton a Las Tierras Incognitas Australes, y al Pais de Las Monas: End Donde Se Expresan las costumbres, caracter, ciencias, y policía de estos extraordinarios habitatantes, vol. 1. Madrid: Don Bernardo Albert, 1781. In Spanish; 7 engraved illustrations, most fold-out. xvi + 175 pp., 5.25" x 7.75". Cover wear, especially to corners and spine; toning and some staining throughout; insect damage; one leaf partially torn.
The Travels of Henry Wanton to the Undiscovered Austral Regions and the Kingdom of the Apes is a novel first published in two volumes in 1749 by Venetian author Zaccaria Seriman. He published an expanded four-volume edition in 1764. Seriman's narration of this imaginary journey, which he pretended was "translated from an English manuscript," allowed him to satirize the civil, religious, and political customs of eighteenth-century Europe. Its use of utopian scenarios made it a precursor of Italian science fiction. It was first translated into Spanish in 1778.
Zaccaria Seriman (1709-1784) was born into a noble and rich family of Armenian merchants in Venice. He lived in Venice for most of his life, except for studying in Bologna (1721-1725) in the Jesuit Collegio dei Nobili di San Saverio. His best-known work is the novel Travels of Henry Wanton (1749). He also wrote at least two operas.


This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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