Lémery - Droghe Semplici - 1737

FARMACY, BOTANY AND MATERIA MEDICA OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY WITH 25 PLATES OF PLANTS, ANIMALS AND MINERALS
Rare Italian edition of the famous Dictionary or Universal Treatise of Simple Drugs by the French doctor, pharmacist and chemist Nicolas Lémery (1645-1715), published in Venice in Hertz’s Printing House in 1737, after the first Italian impression of 1721. A monumental repertory of seventeenth-century materia medica, the work alphabetically describes hundreds of substances used in the preparation of medicines and coming from the three kingdoms of nature: vegetal, animal and mineral. For each drug Lémery analyzes names, geographical origin, physical characteristics, criteria of selection, properties and therapeutic uses, offering an extraordinary panorama of European pharmacy before the birth of modern pharmacology. Of exceptional charm is the iconographic apparatus consisting of 25 plates unbound at the end of the volume, divided into numerous figures and dedicated mainly to medicinal plants, but also to animals, minerals and other substances used by apothecaries. The present copy preserves all 25 plates intact, the main collectible element of the edition, while two preliminary leaves containing the beginning of the preface are missing.

WHY TO BUY
25 ILLUSTRATED PLATES! A vast visual repository of medicinal plants, animals, minerals and pharmaceutical substances.
LÉMERY! One of the great figures in the transformation of chemistry and pharmacy between the 17th and 18th centuries.
A PHARMACOPOEIA BEFORE MODERN PHARMACOLOGY! Herbs, roots, resins, stones and animal substances described as therapeutic remedies.

MARKET VALUE
The seventeenth- and eighteenth-century editions of Lémery’s Dictionary of Simple Drugs maintain good interest among collectors of pharmacy, medicine, botany, chemistry and the history of natural science. The presence of the 25 unbound plates represents the most important element in the assessment and makes this copy considerably more interesting than copies lacking the illustrative apparatus. A complete and well-preserved copy can be positioned roughly in the €600-1,000 retail range.

PHYSICAL / CONDITION
A few preliminary leaves (2), 10 (unnumbered) pages, 374, 46 (unnumbered), (2), plus 25 illustrated plates unbound. Text set in two columns. Large engraved vignette at the title page. All 25 final plates are preserved, with numerous depictions of plants, animals, natural parts and substances used in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century medicine and pharmacy. Late 19th-century binding with gilt title on the spine. Front board detached; rear board partially detached. Title page restored. Two preliminary leaves missing. Leaves may show browning, foxing, stains and typical signs of time. As with all antique volumes, slight defects or restorations not explicitly mentioned may be present.

FULL TITLES & AUTHORS
Nicolas Lémery (1645-1715).
Dizionario overo Trattato Universale delle Droghe Semplici.
Venice: nella Stamperia dell’Hertz, 1737.
SECOND ITALIAN EDITION.
A few (2), 10 (unnumbered) pages, 374, 46 (unnumbered) pages.
With 25 illustrated plates unbound.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Nicolas Lémery (Rouen, 1645 – Paris, 1715) was one of the most renowned chemists, pharmacists and physicians in France between the 17th and 18th centuries and a fundamental figure in the process that led European chemistry from the alchemical tradition to an experimental and rational discipline. Trained as a apothecary, he gained great notoriety in Paris thanks to his chemistry lectures, characterized by a practical and understandable approach, distant from the obscure and symbolic language of alchemists. His Cours de Chymie became one of the most widely distributed scientific manuals in Europe and went through numerous editions and translations. Lémery was also the author of the Pharmacopée universelle and of the Dictionnaire ou Traité universel des drogues simples, works intended to train generations of physicians and pharmacists. The latter constitutes the great natural history complement to his production: a true encyclopedia of natural substances used in medicine of the era. Entered into the Academy Royale des Sciences, Lémery contributed decisively to the spread of a chemistry based on observation, experiment and the rational classification of substances.

RARITY
Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Italian editions of the Dictionary of Simple Drugs are not extremely rare, but become considerably more interesting when they preserve the complete apparatus of the 25 unbound plates. It is precisely these images, often consulted separately from the text and easily subject to dispersion, that constitute the bibliographic heart of the work. The 1737 Venetian edition also holds particular interest as the second Italian edition, testimony to the great European fortune of the treatise. The present copy is marred by the absence of two preliminary leaves and by the restoration of the title page, but preserves the main text and especially the entire illustrative apparatus, an element that maintains strong bibliographic and scientific interest.

HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE
Lémery’s Dictionary documents a pivotal moment in the history of medicine and pharmacy, when materia medica was still built almost entirely around substances offered by nature. The 18th-century concept of “drug” was therefore much broader than the modern one and indicated a vegetal, animal or mineral matter susceptible of therapeutic use. The volume thus houses herbs, roots, flowers, seeds, fruits, woods, resins, gums and balsams together with animal, mineral, stone, and exotic substances from European trade networks. Lémery attempts to bring order to this universe through an alphabetical classification and a systematic description of origin, quality and use. The treatise thus constitutes a primary source for reconstructing the 18th-century apothecary’s workshop and the medical knowledge preceding modern pharmacology. The 25 illustrated plates greatly enhance this documentary value, turning the volume into a true visual encyclopedia of the Ancien Régime’s materia medica.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Wellcome, Historical Medical Library, III, p. 488.
Krivatsy, A Catalogue of Seventeenth Century Printed Books in the National Library of Medicine, repertories of Nicolas Lémery’s works.
Wellcome Collection, historical editions of the Dictionnaire ou Traité universel des drogues simples.
Bibliographic repertories devoted to the history of pharmacy, materia medica and European chemistry of the eighteenth century.
Pharmaceutical bibliographies relating to Italian editions of Lémery’s Dictionary.