FULL TITLE: DE ARCANIS NATURAE, LIBELLI QUATUOR (ABOUT THE SECRETS OF NATURE IN 4 BOOKS)
Written by Antoine Mizauld
Published by Lutetiae : Apud Iacobum Keruer, 1558 [Jacques Kerver. Paris, 1558]
Language: Latin
DESCRIPTION:
Very rare 16th-century French Renaissance book of secrets.
[Book of Secrets, Occult, Medicine] Antoine Mizauld. De Arcanis Naturae, Libelli Quatuor. Paris: Jacques Kerver, 1558. First edition, 32 mo (11 cm x 7.5 cm), text complete (157 pages), lacking title page; elaborate headers and end-pieces with decorative woodcut initials; divided into four books discussing secret properties of plants and herbs, zoological observations, and historical references; contemporary vellum boards with partially legible ink spine titling, several passages censored with ink (mainly in Book III), otherwise well-preserved [Wellcome cat. of printed books, v. 1, no. 4352, Adams M1496].
Mizauld (1510–1578), also known as Mizaldus, was a renowned French physician and amateur astrologer whose “books of secrets” influenced later writers and were cited by early modern authors. His works were widely read in the 16th and early 17th centuries but later fell out of favour, making surviving early editions scarce. References to his writings appear in Renaissance literature, including dramatic works of the Jacobean era.
Books of secrets were a popular genre in early modern Europe, offering practical instructions for experiments and remedies. As Mary Floyd-Wilson observes in Occult Knowledge, Science, and Gender on the Shakespearean Stage (2013), “(b)ooks of secrets provided instructions on how to produce certain effects; however, the ultimate cause of those effects remained occulted" (92). She explains that historians offer different perspectives on the genre’s audience and significance. For Paulo Rossi, "secrets literature is built on an epistemological divide between the elite magician and the ignorant masses," while William Eamon suggests, "books of secrets anticipated the scientific revolution in their emphasis on practicable experiments" (92). Allison Kavey, "(f)ocusing on English publications...empahsizes how the popularity and cheap availability of certain books of secrets gave common readers a ‘sense of themselves as practitioners, as authorities, and as active participants in, rather than victims of, the world around them'" (92). Mizauld’s works exemplify this tradition, blending practical knowledge with the esoteric
CONDITION: Good to very good condition; strongly bound in contemporary vellum boards, with wear, stains, and lacks.; lacks title page, otherwise text complete; signs of censorship with several passages blotted out; minor staining to vellum; partially legible spine title.
BOOK MEASUREMENTS: 16mo, 11 cm X 7.5 cm
TOTAL LENGTH: 157 pages, plus front and rear blank leaves (text complete: 157 pages, lacks title), Advertisements last 3 pages. Signatures: A-V⁸.
