PORTALEONE (Abraham ben David). De auro... - Lot 29 - Ader

Lot 29
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PORTALEONE (Abraham ben David). De auro... - Lot 29 - Ader
PORTALEONE (Abraham ben David). De auro dialogi tres. In quibus non solùm de Auri in re Medica facultate, verum etiam de specifica eius, & cæterarum rerum forma, ac duplici potestate, qua mixtis in omnibus illa operatur, copiosè disputatur. Venice: Giovanni Battista Porta, 1584. - In-4, 209 x 153: (4 ff.), 178 pp., (13 ff. last blank). Soft calfskin, spine with small nerves (contemporary binding). Adams, A32. - Caillet, 33. - Durling, 3736. - Duveen, 2 - Wellcome I, 9: Rare original edition of this treatise on medicine composed at the request of William III of Gonzaga , Duke of Mantua. The author of this text is the Jewish physician from Mantua Abraham ben David Portaleone (1542)1612). In these dialogues, he studied the possible medical uses of gold, a subject straddling medicine and alchemy, much debated at the time, and in this he offered an example of perfect harmonization between the secular sciences and Jewish tradition. Among other things, he denies that the internal use of gold can prolong life. For him, this treatise was "an opportunity to set out his general conception of science and his vision of history, in elegant Latin prose which includes, in addition to scientific arguments, many amusing, even comical passages, even alluding to the erotic literature of an author like Boccaccio" (Alessandro Guetta, Les Juifs d'Italie à la Renaissance, Albin Michel, 2017). The edition is illustrated with a beautiful full-page symbolic intaglio engraving in intaglio, depicting in medallion in a Renaissance frame, a frightening rooster and a lion under a banner bearing the Latin motto "Adjutor non Timebo ". Complete copy but the G to N notebooks were bound in disorder. Several scorched sheets. Two small perforations on the dishes.
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