ALBERTUS MAGNUS ([?]1193-1280, attributed). De Secretis mulierum.

ALBERTUS MAGNUS ([?]1193-1280, attributed). De secretis mulierum. Item de virtutibus herbarum, lapidum et animalium. Amsterdam: Apud Jodocum Janssonium, 1643. 12mo (125 x 75mm). Engraved architectural title with putti and a woman in the throes of childbirth, initial, roman and italic type, index (some light staining). 19th-century olive calf gilt, spine gilt with red morocco lettering-piece, green silk tie (joints split, covers loose, extremities rubbed, tie detached). Provenance: Thomas Westwood (armorial label and bookplate, and with his old inscription on front free endpaper); L. F. Salzmann (bookplate, dated 1899); from the Library of the late Sir George Engle. This treatise on ‘the secrets of women’, which includes Michael Scoto’s De secretis naturæ, discusses the healing properties of herbs, minerals and animals, and includes many references to astrology, magic and hermeticism. Cf. Brunet I, 51 (not citing this edition); Caillet 129 (attributing the work to Henri de Saxe or Thomas de Cantipré); De Guaita Bibliothèque Occulte 1657: “Jolie petite édition …”; Ferguson Bibliotheca chemica 15 (citing 1669 edition); Krivatsy 119; Sinkankas Gemmology 57; Verminelli Bibliotheca Hermetica 7; Wellcome II, p.24.