Book Experts call this a ‘properly old’ book. It dates from 1615 and is about one of the most desirable of all subjects: alchemy. The hand-written spine reads ‘Libavii Opus Chimic To. 1’ This tells us that the author was Libavius, and the work (opus) is on chemistry. ‘To.1’ means tome one. The book next to it is not actually tome 2, it is the third part but 400 years ago the original owner either did not know or care. That’s not the only thing I love about this gorgeous pair. There are manuscript notes inside, some others on the boards themselves, there are curious little diagrams, the ancient vellum boards… it looks exactly like an ancient book about alchemy, in fact. This book is for sale here. Tomorrow we’ll be jumping forward a few centuries and looking at some more lovely old books about love in the run up to Valentine’s Day…
Hoffmann, Frankfurt, 1615. Reprint.
