[STARKEY, George (1628-1665)] - photo 1
[STARKEY, George (1628-1665)] - photo 2

[STARKEY, George (1628-1665)]

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£ 5 040
Auction dateClassic
13.12.2023 11:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
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Archive
ID 1105650
Lot 87 | [STARKEY, George (1628-1665)]
[STARKEY, George (1628-1665)]

Anonymi Philalethae Philosophi Opera Omnia. Quae adhuci notuerunt cum 12. figuris aeneis, ipsius Philalethae, nunquam visis. Modena: F. Rosati, 1695.

One of the greatest rarities in all of alchemical literature, this work contains the writings of George Starkey published under the pseudonym Eirenaeus Philaletha: De metallorum metaphorsi; Brevis manuductio ad rubinum coelestem; and Fons chemicae philosophiae. All three first appeared in 1668 in Martin Birrius's Tres tractatus de metallorum transmutation (see Ferguson I, 109). RBH only records two copies at auction. We can trace a single copy in Italy at Estense Universitaria, Modena, 2 in Germany at Hamburg and in the Herzog-August-Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, one in Austria in the Krems city library, and one in France at the Institut catholique de Paris. Wellcome IV, 374 (2 plates only).



Octavo (173 x 100mm). Woodcut to title, 4 folding engraved plates, [6] ll., 288 pp. (leaves F7-8 adhered to one another, small marginal hole to H12, some occasional faint browning to a couple of quires). Contemporary pasteboard binding (lightly soiled and rubbed). Provenance: 18th-century ink notes to front free endpaper and some minor annotation to text.

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