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Lot 88: RAMON LULL (c. 1232-1315)

Est: £1,000 GBP - £1,500 GBP
Christie'sLondon, United KingdomOctober 08, 2015

Item Overview

Description

RAMON LULL (c. 1232-1315) De secretis naturae sive Quinta essentia libri duo...De mineralibus & rebus metallicis libri quinque. [Edited by Walther Ryff]. Strassburg: Balthasar Beck, March 1541. 8° (137 x 82mm). Woodcut illustrations including three full-page. (Without final blank, title and quires A-E repaired, mainly at lower corner with some words and sections of woodcuts supplied in manuscript, full-page woodcut shaved at foredge, S7-8, T1 and V1-2 heavily browned, other occasional light browning.) 19th-century vellum, lettered in gilt on spine (removed shelfmark on spine). Provenance: Giacomo Boncompagni, Duke of Sora (1548-1612; ink stamp on title with his dragon crest) — ‘S’ (ink stamp on endpaper). RARE. Ryff's first edition of these tracts in which the philosophical system of Lull is explained and developed around the relationship with nature and the different characteristics of the metals and stones. Lull’s alchemical works were published singularly and in collections; this work was printed as a separate edition. Giacomo Boncompagni was the natural son of Pope Gregory XIII, who acquired the Duchy of Sora for his son in 1579. His library was assembled in the 1570s and 1580s. Adams L, 1704; Duveen p.369; Ferguson ii, 54; VD16 R158; cf. Caillet 6858 (1542 edition).

Artist or Maker

Auction Details

Travel, Science & Natural History

by
Christie's
October 08, 2015, 10:30 AM UTC

85 Old Brompton Road, London, LDN, SW7 3LD, UK