This is the first English edition of The Secret Miracles of Nature, the Dutch physician Levinus Lemnius’s collection of the hidden wonders of the natural world. A former reader made a short index on a leaf at the back of this copy. Among its seven subjects are the moon, “Milk & cream” and “gift of language.” The last points to page 91, where Lemnius asks why people in a high fever sometimes speak languages they never learned.
Lemnius reported that such episodes were often blamed on the devil. He allowed that a devil could cause them, since devils knew all natural things. In his own patients he blamed the humors, the four bodily fluids of old medicine, boiling up and sending their smoke to the brain. He treated them with opiates and warm compresses on the head. Afterward they remembered nothing, “and when I told them of some things, they were ashamed of them, and wondred they had so much forgot themselves.”
Lemnius (1505–1568) practiced medicine in Zierikzee, in Zeeland, and became a priest after his wife died. His book first appeared in Latin at Antwerp in 1559 and belongs to the genre known as books of secrets: collections of surprising properties of bodies, plants, stones and the heavens. He enlarged its original two books to four. The English translation appeared anonymously in this folio of 1658, with a fifth book, the “Paraenesis, or Exhortation,” on how to lead an excellent life.
In the preface, Lemnius argues that physicians resort to “hidden qualities” when they cannot explain an effect. He wanted to find its cause. His explanations allowed the moon to govern parts of the body and make wounds dangerous on particular days. A fasting man’s spittle could kill scorpions and fix quicksilver. In the added fifth book, rosemary hung at a doorway “drives away devills and contagions of the Plague.”
The copy is bound in calf with a red spine label. The handwritten index also directs its reader to the ring finger and the effects of parents’ blessings and curses.
Provenance: A pencil index of seven subjects with page numbers on the final blank leaf, in a neat cursive hand: "moon 279. 81.", "Milk & cream 166.", "gift of language 91.", "ring-finger 109.", "physiognomy 130", "saliva 164" and "blessing or curse of parents on their children, has effect 133." "Lemnius" in pencil on the front free endpaper.
LEMNIUS, Levinus. The Secret Miracles of Nature: In Four Books. Learnedly and Moderately treating of Generation, and the Parts thereof; the SOUL, and its Immortality; of Plants and living Creatures; of Diseases, their Symptoms and Cures, and many other Rarities not treated of by any Author Extant; whereof see more in the TABLE of the CONTENTS. Whereunto is added one Book containing Philosophical and Prudential RULES how MAN shall become Excellent in all conditions, whether high or low, and lead his LIFE with Health of Body and Mind. Fit for the use of those that practise Physick, and all Others that desire to search into the Hidden Secrets of NATURE, for increase of Knowledg. Written by that Famous Physitian Lævinus Lemnius. London, Printed by Jo. Streater, and are to be sold by Humphrey Moseley at the Prince's Arms in S. Paul's Church-Yard, John Sweeting at the Angel in Popes-Head-Alley, John Clark at Mercers-Chappel, and George Sawbridge at the Bible on Ludgate-Hill, 1658. First edition in English.
Physical Description: Folio, 280 x 190 mm. [16], 398 pages, and a final blank leaf. Title page printed in red and black within a ruled border, followed by the preface "to the Friendly Reader" and the table of contents. Woodcut initials and type-ornament headpieces. The four books of the Secret Miracles end on page 314. The added fifth book, the "Paraenesis, or Exhortation," runs from page 315 to the end.
Binding: Period calf, the spine with five raised bands and a red morocco label lettered in gilt "SECRET MIRACLES 1658."
Condition: Head of the spine chipped and worn, joints rubbed, corners slightly rubbed. Paper browned, with scattered spotting, a few small stains and a few small holes. A narrow paper stub in the gutter beside the first leaf of the preface. Lower edges of a few leaves near the end frayed, and some corners creased. One passage in the added book underlined in ink, and faint pencil marks in one margin.
This is the first English edition of The Secret Miracles of Nature, the Dutch physician Levinus Lemnius’s collection of the hidden wonders of the natural world. A former reader made a short index on a leaf at the back of this copy. Among its seven subjects are the moon, “Milk & cream” and “gift of language.” The last points to page 91, where Lemnius asks why people in a high fever sometimes speak languages they never learned.
Lemnius reported that such episodes were often blamed on the devil. He allowed that a devil could cause them, since devils knew all natural things. In his own patients he blamed the humors, the four bodily fluids of old medicine, boiling up and sending their smoke to the brain. He treated them with opiates and warm compresses on the head. Afterward they remembered nothing, “and when I told them of some things, they were ashamed of them, and wondred they had so much forgot themselves.”
Lemnius (1505–1568) practiced medicine in Zierikzee, in Zeeland, and became a priest after his wife died. His book first appeared in Latin at Antwerp in 1559 and belongs to the genre known as books of secrets: collections of surprising properties of bodies, plants, stones and the heavens. He enlarged its original two books to four. The English translation appeared anonymously in this folio of 1658, with a fifth book, the “Paraenesis, or Exhortation,” on how to lead an excellent life.
In the preface, Lemnius argues that physicians resort to “hidden qualities” when they cannot explain an effect. He wanted to find its cause. His explanations allowed the moon to govern parts of the body and make wounds dangerous on particular days. A fasting man’s spittle could kill scorpions and fix quicksilver. In the added fifth book, rosemary hung at a doorway “drives away devills and contagions of the Plague.”
The copy is bound in calf with a red spine label. The handwritten index also directs its reader to the ring finger and the effects of parents’ blessings and curses.
Provenance: A pencil index of seven subjects with page numbers on the final blank leaf, in a neat cursive hand: "moon 279. 81.", "Milk & cream 166.", "gift of language 91.", "ring-finger 109.", "physiognomy 130", "saliva 164" and "blessing or curse of parents on their children, has effect 133." "Lemnius" in pencil on the front free endpaper.
LEMNIUS, Levinus. The Secret Miracles of Nature: In Four Books. Learnedly and Moderately treating of Generation, and the Parts thereof; the SOUL, and its Immortality; of Plants and living Creatures; of Diseases, their Symptoms and Cures, and many other Rarities not treated of by any Author Extant; whereof see more in the TABLE of the CONTENTS. Whereunto is added one Book containing Philosophical and Prudential RULES how MAN shall become Excellent in all conditions, whether high or low, and lead his LIFE with Health of Body and Mind. Fit for the use of those that practise Physick, and all Others that desire to search into the Hidden Secrets of NATURE, for increase of Knowledg. Written by that Famous Physitian Lævinus Lemnius. London, Printed by Jo. Streater, and are to be sold by Humphrey Moseley at the Prince's Arms in S. Paul's Church-Yard, John Sweeting at the Angel in Popes-Head-Alley, John Clark at Mercers-Chappel, and George Sawbridge at the Bible on Ludgate-Hill, 1658. First edition in English.
Physical Description: Folio, 280 x 190 mm. [16], 398 pages, and a final blank leaf. Title page printed in red and black within a ruled border, followed by the preface "to the Friendly Reader" and the table of contents. Woodcut initials and type-ornament headpieces. The four books of the Secret Miracles end on page 314. The added fifth book, the "Paraenesis, or Exhortation," runs from page 315 to the end.
Binding: Period calf, the spine with five raised bands and a red morocco label lettered in gilt "SECRET MIRACLES 1658."
Condition: Head of the spine chipped and worn, joints rubbed, corners slightly rubbed. Paper browned, with scattered spotting, a few small stains and a few small holes. A narrow paper stub in the gutter beside the first leaf of the preface. Lower edges of a few leaves near the end frayed, and some corners creased. One passage in the added book underlined in ink, and faint pencil marks in one margin.
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