The Secrets of Alexis of Piedmont : 1567 – 1568

Description

Early Imperfect Copy of The Secrets of Alexis of Piedmont Owned and Annotated By A Milanese Count

 

Piemontese, Alessio. De Secreti del Reverendo Donno Alessio Piemontese Con Le Sua Tavola Per Trouvar Le Ricette Con Ogni Commodita. Parte I-III. Georgio de Cavalli. Venice 1568. Parte IIII, Gio. Andrea Valvassori. Venice. 1567.

Early edition of the famous Book of Secrets of Alexis of Piedmont, believed by many to be a pseudonym of Girolamo Ruscelli, which purports to contain esoteric recipes at the intersection of science and magic compiled by the author out of “the singular pleasure of philosophy and the secrets of nature” and put into print for the benefit of mankind.

First published in 1555 ahead of della Porta’s Magia Naturalis (1559), it is one of the earliest widely published books of secrets, and contains various trade secrets as well as instructions for magio-medical remedies, offering cures for madness, deafness, poisoning, hemorrhoids and other disorders as well as recipes for the manufacture of miraculous medicines like a water which heals all wounds, an “oil of a red dog” that strengthens withered limbs and a potable gold capable of restoring youth and reversing incurable disease.

Highly influential, this book of secrets was expanded upon by many others including Johann Jacob Wecker in his De Secretis Libri XVII. Ruscelli, possibly the text’s true author, would go on to publish Secreti Nuovi (1567), and claimed in the preface to that text that his learning was the result of discoveries made as part of a secret Academia Filosofica he founded with like-minded adepts in Naples.

This copy, which binds together the first three parts published by Georgio de Cavalli with the fourth part published by Valvassori, was formerly owned by Count Carlo Brentano de Grianti, founder of the Milan Music Conservatory and Director of Theaters and Shows and includes 7 pages of manuscript notes on the locations of secrets of interest in addition to various annotations.

Ferguson, Bibliotheca Chemica I, pg 24 (1568 portions).

11 Copies of 1568 portions found in OCLC.

4 vol in 1. 105pp [pgs 106 – 155 missing]. [11] + [2] + 76pp + [8] + 48pp + [4] + [12] + 127pp + [7]. Marbled boards worn with worming to leather spine. Wear to corners with crack to back top fore corner. Bookplate front pastedown. Pages hand numbered. Index pages loose pt I following missing pages. Minor soiling top margin pg 160 – 161. Minor worming track pgs 36-41 pt III. Margin tear pg 38. Occasional pen annotations. Includes four manuscript pages of notes at rear. Generally good.

 

If you liked this book, you might also enjoy this copy of the First American Edition of The Secret Tradition of Alchemy by AE Waite. You might also enjoy this copy of the third edition of Occult Chemistry by Theosophical Society leaders Annie Besant and CW Leadbeater.