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Bound with: Köppe, Martin (Arioponus Cephalus) (1554 - 1615) Das Spissglas Antimonium oder Stibium genandt, in ein Glas gegossen, es sey geel oder rodt, das man Vitrum antimonii nennet, ein warhafftige Gifft und gantz gefehrliche schedliche Artzney sey….Und derhalben von der Obrigkeit in wolbestelten Policeyen, billich die Landtfehrer, so es den Leuten feil bieten, nicht gelitten werden; Was auch die rechte Medicina sey, in gedachtem Minerlai, do es jeman brauchen wolte Manuscript on paper, ca. 1569 Octavo. Two works in one volume: 15.5 x 10.2 cm. I. (Paracelsus): 12 lvs., 415 pp. Collation: a8, b4, a-z8, A-C8. II. (Köppe): [104] pages in black ink, plus 72 blank leaves. Bound in contemporary green painted vellum, color rubbed and worn, covers slightly bowed, wear at foot of spine. 1. Title of the printed book (Paraclesus) lightly soiled and with small stains, intermittent oil stain to outer margin of opening gatherings, light damp-staining to gatherings k, l, and m. Some light browning and soiling; scattered alchemical symbols in an early hand in the margins. 2. The manuscript (Köppe) is in excellent condition. A marvelous volume that combines two 16th c. chemical-alchemical treatises: a printed edition of Paracelsus "Archidoxa", which "contains the greater part of his chemical work"(Norman); and a manuscript copy of a very rare treatise by the physician-alchemist Martin Köppe. 1. The Manuscript: A 16th c. manuscript on the poisonous properties of metalloids (probably a copy of the sole printed edition, which appeared in 1569 without indication of place or printer). The author, the Paracelsan Martin Köppe the Younger (1554-1615), was personal physician of Duke Heinrich Julius of Brunswick. While likely a copy of the printed edition, the manuscript has some marginal notes not found in the printed version. The printed book is known in very few copies, indicating a limited print run. Only four copies are traced in North American institutions (Yale, NLM, Penn, Wisconsin.) Writing under the pseudonym Arioponus Cephalus, Köppe describes the process of creating "Glass of antinomy" (vitrum antimonii) from stibnite (Spießglas), also called antimonite (Sb?S?), a metalloid mineral of the antimony. Glass of antinomy was used by alchemists and physicians for medicinal purposes, and by artists for creating pigments (either yellow or red). As our author notes, it is a toxic substance, "a true poison and a very dangerous and harmful medicine" and one that, consequently, has been made illegal in certain places. The 17th century alchemist George Starkey (Eirenaeus Philalethes) describes stibnite in his alchemical commentary An Exposition upon Sir George Ripley s Epistle as a precursor to philosophical mercury, which was itself a hypothetical precursor to the Philosopher s stone. "Antimony could be transformed into other forms, and was thus used in both early modern visual arts and medicine. Although the exact origins of the recipes are unclear, by the seventeenth century, antimonial glass was generally understood as a clear, yellow or red vitreous substance made from calcined (powdered and roasted) antimony. This glass was subsequently powdered and both used as a pigment in glass paints and solved in wine as a very strong emetic, a purge. The transformation from a silvery (mercurial) substance into something yellow or red (sulfurous) played a central role in alchemy, and was even associated with the secret to the Philosopher s Stone, which could either transform all metals into gold or contained the secret to the universal panacea. This characteristic of silvery antimony transforming into yellow or red antimonial glass partly explains the popularity of such a toxic material."(Marieke Hendriksen, Strange glass: VitriumAntimonii) Köppe rails against the growing number of mountebanks and charlatans who poison and defraud people by prescribing the highly toxic glass of antinomy. They win the confidence of the ill by dropping the name of Parac.
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