Some pages carry the ideas that founded a tradition. Paracelsus, born Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, is one of the indispensable figures of Western esotericism, the alchemist and hermetic philosopher whose vision of a living, ensouled cosmos runs straight through every occult current that follows him, from Rosicrucianism to the alchemical revival of later centuries. He taught that all creation is composed of three first principles, the Tria Prima of Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury, that the human body is a microcosm answering to the stars and the wider world, and that the true adept is a spagyrist who separates and exalts the hidden virtues, the arcana, locked in matter. From this alchemical worldview he built a new medicine, burning Galen and Avicenna in public and insisting on the laboratory over inherited dogma. The leaves gathered here are chosen from the passages where that revolutionary program speaks most clearly.
They come from the first volume of the great 1616 folio edition of his collected German works, edited by Johannes Huser, who spent years recovering Paracelsus's scattered and unpublished manuscripts and setting them in order, and printed at Strasbourg by the heirs of Lazarus Zetzner. This is the volume that carries his most important statements on the alchemical foundations of healing, the Paragranum and the Paramirum among them, works in which he lays out the pillars of a medicine rooted in alchemy and the origins of disease in the cosmos itself. To hold one of these leaves is to hold the actual German type in which a furious, world-changing magus told the learned faculties of Europe that they had understood nature backwards. Printed large in the folio format, chosen for the strength of their content, these are pages a collector reads rather than merely files away.
This is an uncommon chance to own a substantial page from one of the cornerstone books of Western alchemy and the occult tradition, at a small fraction of the cost of a complete folio.
PARACELSUS (Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, 1493/94–1541). Opera. Bücher und Schrifften, so viel deren zur Handt gebracht... [the Medical Works, including the Paragranum and Paramirum]. Edited by Johannes Huser. Strasbourg: In Verlegung Lazari Zetzners Seeligen Erben [Heirs of Lazarus Zetzner], 1616. Second folio (Huser) edition; Tomus 1 (of 2/3), here dispersed as individual leaves. Folio.
Physical Description: A single original printed folio leaf selected for notable content, German text in gothic (Fraktur) type. Drawn from the first, medical volume of the collected works. Approx. 12.5 x 7.5 in. / 32 x 20 cm.
Binding: None; issued as a disbound single leaf.
Condition: Age-toning, scattered foxing and light soiling, edges as issued with occasional wear or short tears consistent with a volume that did not survive intact (see note below). Text clear and legible. Sold individually; each leaf will vary and is chosen for the strength of its content. Additional shipping and handling charges apply.
A note on these leaves
Sadly, many antiquarian volumes simply do not survive the ravages of time. This is especially true for works of esoterica, which are so often hunted, smuggled, or made to endure life in an alchemical lab, and a great many have been destroyed outright in the persecution of occult knowledge.
These volumes reached us in a state in which preservation of the entire book was simply not possible: destroyed internal structure, failed binding, a great many missing pages, and otherwise orphaned, among many other catastrophic faults. Put simply, they have come to us either as individual leaves or in a condition beyond saving as intact, singular books.
After consulting several experts in the field, we have opted to make individual leaves of these important volumes in esoteric history available. This is a rare opportunity to own a piece of occult history for a fraction of the price of a complete antiquarian volume. This listing is for select pages featuring especially extraordinary material. More plain pages, still extraordinary refugees from the earliest days of esoteric printing, are offered separately.
Some pages carry the ideas that founded a tradition. Paracelsus, born Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, is one of the indispensable figures of Western esotericism, the alchemist and hermetic philosopher whose vision of a living, ensouled cosmos runs straight through every occult current that follows him, from Rosicrucianism to the alchemical revival of later centuries. He taught that all creation is composed of three first principles, the Tria Prima of Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury, that the human body is a microcosm answering to the stars and the wider world, and that the true adept is a spagyrist who separates and exalts the hidden virtues, the arcana, locked in matter. From this alchemical worldview he built a new medicine, burning Galen and Avicenna in public and insisting on the laboratory over inherited dogma. The leaves gathered here are chosen from the passages where that revolutionary program speaks most clearly.
They come from the first volume of the great 1616 folio edition of his collected German works, edited by Johannes Huser, who spent years recovering Paracelsus's scattered and unpublished manuscripts and setting them in order, and printed at Strasbourg by the heirs of Lazarus Zetzner. This is the volume that carries his most important statements on the alchemical foundations of healing, the Paragranum and the Paramirum among them, works in which he lays out the pillars of a medicine rooted in alchemy and the origins of disease in the cosmos itself. To hold one of these leaves is to hold the actual German type in which a furious, world-changing magus told the learned faculties of Europe that they had understood nature backwards. Printed large in the folio format, chosen for the strength of their content, these are pages a collector reads rather than merely files away.
This is an uncommon chance to own a substantial page from one of the cornerstone books of Western alchemy and the occult tradition, at a small fraction of the cost of a complete folio.
PARACELSUS (Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, 1493/94–1541). Opera. Bücher und Schrifften, so viel deren zur Handt gebracht... [the Medical Works, including the Paragranum and Paramirum]. Edited by Johannes Huser. Strasbourg: In Verlegung Lazari Zetzners Seeligen Erben [Heirs of Lazarus Zetzner], 1616. Second folio (Huser) edition; Tomus 1 (of 2/3), here dispersed as individual leaves. Folio.
Physical Description: A single original printed folio leaf selected for notable content, German text in gothic (Fraktur) type. Drawn from the first, medical volume of the collected works. Approx. 12.5 x 7.5 in. / 32 x 20 cm.
Binding: None; issued as a disbound single leaf.
Condition: Age-toning, scattered foxing and light soiling, edges as issued with occasional wear or short tears consistent with a volume that did not survive intact (see note below). Text clear and legible. Sold individually; each leaf will vary and is chosen for the strength of its content. Additional shipping and handling charges apply.
A note on these leaves
Sadly, many antiquarian volumes simply do not survive the ravages of time. This is especially true for works of esoterica, which are so often hunted, smuggled, or made to endure life in an alchemical lab, and a great many have been destroyed outright in the persecution of occult knowledge.
These volumes reached us in a state in which preservation of the entire book was simply not possible: destroyed internal structure, failed binding, a great many missing pages, and otherwise orphaned, among many other catastrophic faults. Put simply, they have come to us either as individual leaves or in a condition beyond saving as intact, singular books.
After consulting several experts in the field, we have opted to make individual leaves of these important volumes in esoteric history available. This is a rare opportunity to own a piece of occult history for a fraction of the price of a complete antiquarian volume. This listing is for select pages featuring especially extraordinary material. More plain pages, still extraordinary refugees from the earliest days of esoteric printing, are offered separately.
Image 1 of 10
Image 2 of 10
Image 3 of 10
Image 4 of 10
Image 5 of 10
Image 6 of 10
Image 7 of 10
Image 8 of 10
Image 9 of 10
Image 10 of 10