BRUNSCHWIG, Hieronymus (c.1450-c.1512) - photo 1
BRUNSCHWIG, Hieronymus (c.1450-c.1512) - photo 2

BRUNSCHWIG, Hieronymus (c.1450-c.1512)

Lot 134
10.12.2025 12:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
ID 1514550
Lot 134 | BRUNSCHWIG, Hieronymus (c.1450-c.1512)
Estimate value
£ 5 000 – 7 000
BRUNSCHWIG, Hieronymus (c.1450-c.1512)
Das Buch zu Destilliren die zusamen gethonen Ding. Strasburg: Johann Grüninger, 1519.
Second edition of 'a pharmaceutical-technical handbook that was the authority far into the sixteenth century' (DSB) by the German surgeon, botanist and alchemist Hieronymus Brunschwig, from a German monastic library. Written in German in order to have the widest practical influence, the so-called Grosses Destillierbuch comprises a manual for the distillation of medicinal waters using various methods, a compendium of diseases and their remedies, and a section on surgery. Distilled waters were widely used in early modern medicine and the book was read beyond German-speaking areas; it follows Brunschwig’s Kleines Destillierbuch of 1500 in drawing heavily on earlier alchemical works (though with few explicit references to these sources), but significantly enlarges upon the earlier text, with the newly-added Thesaurus pauperum (Book V) serving as a useful pharmacopeia for the poor that was often reprinted. The Grosses Destillierbuch was highly prized for the many illustrations which accompany the text, some of which had appeared in previous Grüninger editions, including the 1512 first printing. The title shows an air- and water-cooled stillhead in operation; further woodcuts depict distilling equipment, the plants to be used for the medicinal waters, and scenes from 16th-century medicine, from blood-letting to apothecaries and physicians at work. Stillwell, Awakening, 828 (1512 ed.).; VD-16 B-8699. Not in Adams, Durling-NLM, Waller, or Wellcome.

Folio (280 x 192mm). Two columns with headline. 146 woodcuts, woodcut ornamental initials (browned, dampstaining in lower gutter of the second half, occasional spotting, 16cm tear to Hh2). Binding re-using vellum leaves from a 15th-century German missal, new endpapers (rebacked, possibly recased). Provenance: Metten Abbey, Bavaria (inscribed on title ‘In Usum FF. Mettensium’); Dr Christoph Hauser (erased 17th-century ownership inscription on title); Albert John Chalmers (British colonial physician and pioneer in tropical medicine research, 1870-1920; bookplate inside upper cover); Royal Society of Medicine (‘Librarian’s Room 35’ in pencil on title).
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
10.12.2025 – 10.12.2025
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