FLUDD Robert Utriusque maioris scilicet et minoris Metaphysica, Physica atque Technica historia in duo volumina secundum Cosmi differentiam divisa.

Extremely rare first edition of the first two parts of the first philosophical work by Robert Fludd (1574-1637), giving his exposition of the macrocosm and the microcosm.

These two large volumes are copiously illustrated with remarkable mystical emblems representing the relationship between man, the cosmos and the divinity. It is highly likely that Fludd himself was the designer of these illustrations, which feature recurring geometric motifs: concentric circles, triangles, pyramids, hemispheres, blazing suns and a play of light and shadow. The meaning of the emblems is revealed in the accompanying texts, which bring together quotations from the Bible and Hermetic knowledge. In these volumes, Fludd expresses both his adherence to a Judeo-Christian interpretation of world history based on the text of the Bible and his hostility to university teaching in the form of Aristotelian natural philosophy and Galenic medicine. Fludd’s originality lies in his revival of the fifteenth-century neoplatonism of Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola and their sources in the corpus hermeticum, which he combined with an alchemical account of creation based on a literal reading of the book of Genesis.

The main explanatory mechanism for the workings and order of the world is the parallel between the macrocosm and the microcosm. Man is revealed as ‘nature’s monkey’, imitating and completing nature’s work through the exercise of geometry, music, memory, astrology, physiognomy, palmistry and the mechanical arts, including cosmography, painting and the art of war; all these activities are in some way based on numbers.

Fludd’s metaphysics postulates a complex and global correspondence between the spiritual world and the physical world, which implies opposition to Copernicanism. For Fludd, the sun, the source of heat, light and spirit, circles the earth and enlivens it, just as the Holy Spirit enlivens man.

Contains:

1. Utriusque maioris scilicet et minoris Metaphysica, Physica atque Technica historia in duo volumina secundum Cosmi differentiam divisa. [i] De macrocosmi historia: [1 De macrocosmi structura]. Oppenheim, Hìeronymus Galler, for Johann Theodor de Bry, 1617. Fine engraved emblematic title, 206 pp., 3 un.l., 2 engraved folding plates and 61 very fine and curious engravings in the text, woodcut figures and ornaments.

Caillet 4042 (pt. 1) (Traite fort rare et tres recherche); Cushing F231; Duveen 222 (pt. 1); Houzeau and Lancaster 1:2965; Jung Collected Works 12; Mellon/Macphail 74; Osler 2621; Thorndike 7:98; Wellcome 1:2324-24a (pts. 1) (variants);Wisconsin/Neu 1453: Young 115.

First edition.

2. [Utriusque …cosmi historia: i De macrocosmi historia: 2] De naturae simia; seu, Technica macrocosmi historia. Oppenheim Hìeronymus Galler, for Johann Theodor de Bry, 1618. Engraved title, 788 pp., 5 un.ll., 5 folding engraved plates, over 200 very fine and curious engravings in the text, woodcut figures and ornaments (the last blank removed by the binder).

Caillet 4042 (pt. 2); Duveen 222 (pt. 2); Houzeau and Lancaster 1:2966; Mellon/Macphail 83 (variant, with a full engraved border on the title-page. and with Y4 cancelled); Osler 2622; Wellcome 1:2325;Wisconsin/Xeu 1451:Young 115. Volume 1. no. 2; Neville, II 460-461; Guaita, 1308 (“traité fort rare”).

First edition.

“”The first volume, complete in itself, of Fludd’s collected works. This volume contains the first two works on the macrocosm and the microcosm by the English scientist, physician, alchemist, and Rosicrucian Fludd, whose writings are among the most interesting and curious of the early seventeenth century. The several hundred remarkable engravings are of great artistic merit. Hoefer gives an account of the chemical passages. Fludd describes the important first experiments on a gas and illustrates its apparatus, stating that ‘air nourishes fire and is consumed’” (Neville).

3. [Utriusque cosmi historia: ii De microcosmi historia: 1 De integra microcosmi harmonia: a Metaphysica atque physica.] Tomus secundus: De supernaturali. Oppenheim: H. Galler, for J. T. de Bry, 1619. Half-title (Microcosmi historia), engraved title, 277 pp. Numerous copper engravings.

Cushing F229; Glasgow 855 (pt. 1); Osler 2623; Wellcome 1:2326 (pt. 1). Volume 2, part 2. no. 1. 

First edition.

4. [Utriusque cosmi historia: ii De microcosmi historia: 1 De integra microcosmi harmonia: b] Dc technica microcosmi historia. [Oppenheim or Frankfurt a.M., for J. T. de Bry. circa 1620.] 191 pp., 5 un.l. Large engravings on the title and divisional titles and in the text, woodcut figures and ornaments (final blak removed by the binder).

Caillet 4041.i; Cushing F228; Glasgow 855 (pt. 2); Osler 2624; Wellcome 1:2326) (pt. 2). Volume 2, part 2, no. 2.

First edition.

Volume I (parts 1-2) slightly waterstained, folding plates with old restorations (no loss), occasional marginal restorations, some overall browning.