VALENTIN, Basile. Les Douze Clefs de Philosophie ... Traictant de la vraye Médecine Metalique. Plus l'Azoth, ou le moyen de faire l'Or caché des Philosophes. suivi de : [BERNARD LE TRÉVISAN] Traité de la nature de l’oeuf des philosophes de Bernard de Trèves... 1659. 1660.
VALENTIN, Basile.
Les Douze Clefs de Philosophie ... Traictant de la vraye Médecine Metalique.
Plus l'Azoth, ou le moyen de faire l'Or caché des Philosophes.
suivi de : [BERNARD LE TRÉVISAN] Traité de la nature de l’oeuf des philosophes de Bernard de Trèves... 1659.
Paris, Pierre Moët, 1660.
Three parts bound in one 12mo (157x100 mm), [Douze clefs] : 176 pages with the frontispice in text, the 12 plates of the keys and the plate of the furnace / [Azoth ] : 196 pages with 14 woodcuts in text / [Trévisan ] : 64 pages. binding : Eighteen-century full calf. Gilt flat spine with lettering piece. Caps and corners chipped. Important waterstain touching all pages. At the beginning, small lack of paper at the bottom. Some leaves are soiled. Outer margin of last leaves oft the third part weak and formely reinforced at p.49 and at last leaf.
Important alchemical treatise bound in one volume.
Complete with the three text which are often sold separatly.
Second edition in french, the first with the 13 plates for the 12 keys and the furnace.
The Twelve Keys, here in second isssue of the title page dated 1660 is the most important work of Basile Valentin and one of the most important in the alchemical litterature.
Very rare with the remarkable plates of the keys and the furnace from Jean Gobille.
Bound after with a separate title page and pagination, the Azoth, a treaty both hermetic and cabalistic. Azoth is the name that Hermetic philosophers commonly gave to their Mercury the prima materia.
The third text, with title page and separate pagination; another important treatise on alchemy: the Treaty of the Nature of the Egg of the Philosophers of Bernard le Trevisan.
references: Dorbon [5029 : "Cette édition est beaucoup plus estimée et plus belle que celle de 1624"],
Neville [I, p. 89 (without the third part) : "The first translation of the twelve keys into French was reset page for page by Moët in the present edition"],
Guaita [2182 (describe an incomplete copy) : "ouvrage extrêmement rare, surtout lorsqu'il est suivi du traité de l'Azoth, et surtout du Traité de l'Œuf des Philosophes" & 1039 (ne mentionne pas la planche du fourneau)].
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