PORTA Giovanni Battista della De Distillatione lib. IX. Quibus certa methodo, multipliciq; artificio, penitioribus naturae detectis, cuiuslibet mixti in propria elementa resolutio, perfectè docetur.

Duveen, p. 481 ; Ferguson, II, 216 ; Neville, II, 323; Cat. Norman, n° 1725.

First edition, rare. 

“An important book on distillation, being an expansion of the section in Magia Universalis (Naples 1589). It is of interest as ‘giving a more comprehensive view of the application of distillation in the sixteenth century than is found in any other work of the period’ (Stillman).

This book is as rare as it is beautiful. Ferguson, speaking of the reimpression (Strassburg 1609) says that ‘the Roman edition is much the finer book’. The text is preceded by dedications to the author in Hebrew, Greek, Chaldee, Persian, Illyrian, and Armenian. Among the many woodcuts the most curious are those depicting pieces of apparatus likened to different animals. There were four printings in Rome in 1608, all from different settings of type (see Wellcome), but no priority has been established” (Neville).

Title page with cancelled stamp and with light waterstain.

Provenance: Ing. Mario Pedro Arat (stamp on title and signature).