Scarce Book On Alchemy Breath and Life Extension
$300
In stock
Description
Cohausen, Johan Heinrich. Goldsmid, Edmund, trans. Hermippus Redivivus: Or, The Sage’s Triumph Over Old Age and The Grave, Wherein, a Method is Laid Down for Prolonging the Life and Vigour of Man. Including a Commentary Upon an Ancient Inscription, in which this Great Secret is Revealed… Privately Printed, Edinburgh. 1885.
An usual alchemical text based by iatrochemist Johan Heinrich Cohausen on the prolonging of human life by consuming the breath of young women.
Treated by most as strictly satire , Hermippus Redivivus provides a window into a real vein of biological and medical alchemy that began with the spagyrics of Paracelsus and was advanced by his student Jan Baptist van Helmont. Comparing the “ingestion” of breath to Sir Robert Boyle’s real pursuit of the supposed Quintessence of Human Blood, Cohausen’s “modest proposal” — related to similar observations regarding prana and the origin of the word “pneuma”– cites the vapour of rebreathed air as the key to longevity, perhaps inspired by Boyle’s own “Suspicions about some hidden qualities of the air” wherein he theorized the atmosphere contained alchemical “volatile salts” (1674)
Although Cohausen is clearly having fun with the topic at hand, his genuine appreciation for alchemy and the work of van Helmont is attested to in his other works, as well as his own career as an iatrochemist. As the translator of this volume, John Campbell, phrased it: “There is in this Dissertation, such a Mixture of serious Irony, as cannot but afford a very agreeable Entertainment to those who are proper Judges of Subjects of this Kind, and who are inclined to see how far the Strength of human Understanding can support philosophical Truths against common Notions, and vulgar Prejudices”
Small 8vo, 162pp, 2 volumes bound together in blue moire cloth boards. Some bruising to edges. Pastedowns and endpapers foxed. Front pastedown with the noted bookplate of David Bixler with his motto “Plus Lis, Moins Sais” , “read more, know less”. Good condition. One of 275 small copies printed for subscribers.
