[Collection of medical and astrological treatises]. Artzneybuoch in welchem allerhand schöne Recept, so wohl für Menschen alß für Füch Leibs gesundheit propierte und bewehrte Mittell begriffen werden [...].

€ 15.000,00

A fascinating compilation of treatises written in German from 1636 onwards, beginning with astrological tables showing the influence of each planet on the hours of the day, on the days of the year, the zodiac signs and feast days (pp. 1-17); followed by several medical recipes and descriptions of the effects of herbs, quoting Aristotle, Galen, and Seneca; a section on arboriculture, and recipes added in different hands with the dates 1638 and 1646. At the end, on slightly larger paper, with the leaves folded in along the outer margin, there is a treatise in German and Latin on "morbus castrensis, febris hungarica", an illness that severely affected military encampments at various points during the 17th century, now generally identified with typhus. This appears to be a copy of a German pamphlet on the same subject ("Kurtzer und nothwendiger Underricht, die jetzt auff dem Land hin und wieder einreissende Soldaten-Sucht betreffend"), printed in Würzburg in 1689.

The book contains at least two ownership inscriptions: the first of these, included in the title-page dated 1636, is the name of "Wolff Dietterich von Halweil zu Luxburg und Ebenhoven", the second of his name, who lived between 1616 and 1695. The marriage of Hallwyl heir Anna Sibilla (1627-1701) to Johann Rudolf von Westernach zu Kronburg (1608-89) in 1640 explains how the book came to be in the library of Kronburg castle near Memmingen, the ancestral seat of Johann Rudolf's family (cf. Salzgeber), where the book was most likely rebound. The second ownership inscription, written in Latin on the front flyleaf, evidences the book's journey to Kronburg: "Joannes Carolus Baro de Westernach, Dominus in Cronburg, Ebenhoven, Luxenburg, et Ottingen". On the inside upper cover, there is the ms. ownership for the Kronburg castle library: "Ex Biblioth. Cronburg etc. Anno. MDCC. 1700".