De sensu rerum et magia, libri quatuor, pars mirabilis occultae philosophiae, ubi demonstratur, mundum esse Dei vivam statuam, beneque cognoscentem; omnesque illius partes, partiumque particulas sensu donatas esse, alias clariori, alias obscuriori, quantus sufficit ipsarum conseruationi ac totius, in quo consentiunt; & feré omnium naturae arcanorum rationes aperiuntur. Tobias Adami recensuit, et nunc primum evulgauit.

CAMPANELLA, Tommaso.

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Frankfurt, apud Egenolphum Emmelium, impensis Godefridi Tampachii, 1620. 4to. (15),+ (blank),+ 371 pp. Title printed within engraved border. Contemporary ink underlinings and some marginal annotations. The title page is slightly cut in front margin, browning and stains in the margins near the end. Worn contemporary full calf, blind stamped spine with raised bands, red edges. Owner?s signature on title page of Henry Vaughan 1649. VD17 1:001577N. Caillet 1984, ?Un des plus curieux livres de magie.? Caillet points out that this first edition is the most precious one, because the author was forced to revise his work and all later editions are redacted. Wonderful near contemporary association copy, with the signature of Henry Vaughan. Tommaso Campanella, (original name Giovanni Domenico Campanella), (1568-1639), was an Italian Dominican monk, philosopher and writer who sought reform the church and reconcile Renaissance humanism with Roman Catholic theology. He was prosecuted several times for various heresies, and is best remembered for his utopian work ?The City of the Sun? 1602, written while he was a prisoner of the Spanish crown (1599?1626) following his involvement in an attempt to overthrow Spanish rule in Calabria. His clashes with the authorities in Spain and Italy continued after his release from prison in 1626 and he eventually was forced to flee to France, where he was welcomed by King Louis XIII and Cardinal de Richelieu. Campanella was inspired by the teachings of Bernardino Telesio and, like him, was part of the movement toward empiricism and pragmatism, away from the pure theoretical logic of Aristotle. In this work, Campanella details his conviction that all things in the world are sentient to varying degrees and therefore posess will, sympathy and antipathy. Animals are sentient, although not on the level of humans since they do not have knowledge of the divine, as are plants, the stars and even metals and rocks. This sentience and will can be manipulated by the wise, and Campanella describes many useful ways in which natural magic can be put to use.The Welsh poet, author, translator and physician Henry Vaughan ?The Silurist? (1621-95) is perhaps best known for the religious poetry of ?Silex Scintillans? 1650-55. But he was, like his twin brother Thomas (1621-66, clergyman, philosopher, and alchemist), keenly interested in the hermetic arts and Rosicrucianism. The break with Aristotelian dogma and the ideas of the animated nature were of course central to this world view. Thomas Vaughan writes in ?Antroposophia Theomagica?: ?we look on [Aristotle?s] adversaries, the least among them hath foiled him; but Telesius knocked him on the head and Campanella hath quite discomposed him.?Books from the collection of Henry Vaughan are very rare, and are known only in the collections of the Library Company of Philadelphia (see Edwin Wolf 2nd, Some Books of Early English Provenance in the Library Company of Philadelphia, in ?The Book Collector? 9, 1960.). Seller Inventory # 103549

Bibliographic Details

Title: De sensu rerum et magia, libri quatuor, pars...
Condition: Very Good
Edition: 1st Edition
Book Type: Hardcover / Hardback