Opera, Bücher und Schrifften, so viel deren zur Handt gebracht...
Opera, Bücher und Schrifften, by Philippus Theophrastus Paracelsus, Strassburg, 1603
Paracelsus, Philippus Theophrastus. Opera, Bücher und Schrifften, so viel deren zur Handt gebracht: und vor wenig Jahren mit und ihren glaubwürdigen eigener handgeschriebenen Originalien collacioniert / vergliechen / verbessert: und durch IOHANNEM HVSERVM BRISGOIVM in iehem unterschiedliche Theil / in Fruct gegeben ("Works, Books, and Writings, as many as could be gathered: and a few years ago collated / compared / corrected with their reliable original manuscripts in his own handwriting: and published by Johann Huser Brisgoi in various parts"). Edited by Ioannem Huserum Brisgoium. Published in Straßburg, Holy Roman Imperium, by Lazarus Zetzner Buchhandlung (Strassburg, Lazar Zetzner, Booking trade), 1603. With: Opera ... Ander Theyl. Strasbourg, Lazarus Zetzner, 1603. 2 works in 2 volumes. First Strassburg's Edition.
Complete edition of the works of Paracelsus, the famous physician and alchemist, who is regarded as an important innovator in the natural sciences due to his wide-ranging interests and research. First Strasbourg edition and, at the same time, first folio edition, based on the first German complete edition, published in 10 volumes by Johann Huser.
Description and Condition
Binding: Contemporary leather bindings. 32.5 × 20.5 cm. Illustrations: With a wide woodcut title border, 32 figurative and numerous schematic woodcut illustrations in the text.
Colation: 6 leaves, 1127 pp., 24 (orig. 26) leaves; 4 leaves, 687 (of 691) pp., 6 leaves.
Condition: 2 text leaves at the end of the work replaced with copies, 2 index leaves missing, 3 text leaves with small edge tears (with minor text loss), somewhat browned and foxed, Vol. 1 has some larger ink stains on the top edge and spine (partly invisibly backed) and small tears on the bottom edge; the last index page has a tear and is completely backed. Binding is scuffed; one spine is torn at the outer joint and has a small loss on the upper head.
Provenance
Title page with entries in 2 different handwritings (illegible). - Ex-libris of Isaac Bassompierre Jr. in Frankfurt (see Note on Bassompierre below)
Acquired from through Ketterer Kunst GmbH Auctions House, Hamburg, Germany, May 2023.
Literature
Sudhoff 256-257. - Krivatsy 8557. - Wellcome 4807-08. - VD 17, 12:168467C and 12:168390P.
Note on Bassompierre
Isaac de Bassompierre Jr. (Frankfurt am Main, fl. mid-18th century) was a Frankfurt Bürger und Handelsmann (merchant and citizen) belonging to the de Bassompierre family, a Huguenot dynasty of Lorraine origin that had settled in the Rhine region following the religious persecutions of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. His father, Isaac de Bassompierre Sr. (1619–1677), was born in Frankenthal and died in Hanau; the family subsequently established itself in Frankfurt am Main, where it engaged in trade and commerce. Isaac Jr. is documented in Frankfurt archival records in connection with an inheritance settlement dated 1 February 1759, in which he appears among the principal heirs following his father's death. The de Bassompierres were part of the wider community of Reformed (Calvinist) merchant families of French and Walloon descent who played a significant role in Frankfurt's commercial life throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
This Strasbourg 1603 folio of Paracelsus most likely reached Isaac de Bassompierre Jr. through family inheritance. The de Bassompierres were a Huguenot merchant dynasty with strong ties to the Rhine region, where Strasbourg served as a major centre of Reformed scholarship and book production. Paracelsian medicine held a particular appeal in Calvinist intellectual circles, and a folio of his collected works would have been a natural acquisition for an educated merchant family of the early seventeenth century. Passed down through generations alongside other valuables — as documented in the family's 1759 estate records — the volume found its permanent home in the library of one of Frankfurt's prominent Huguenot trading families.
