From the Chorinsky collection: alchemical theory from Enlightenment Dresden

Crügner, Michael. Chymischer Tannebaum, das ist: Beschreibung des Edlen Thanne-Baums Natur, Krafft, Gebrauch und Würckung, nach Hermetischer Philosphiae erkläret. Welchem beygefüget Podagrams Kunst [...].

€ 12,500.00

A fascinating volume of four 17th century alchemical texts, each rarely available commercially in their own right, much less together. All are by the eccentric Dresden chemist and physician Michael Crügner (1610-82), who was "of the school of the latro-mathematicians or latro-astronomers" (Ferguson I, 190). Here, four of his works provide a rich and strange template for the alchemists of the German Enlightenment. All are first editions, except for "Chymischer Frühling", which is the second edition (first published in 1648).

Crügner belonged to an era with a large appetite for textbooks on the mysteries of alchemy. His works range from Hermetic philosophy to the uses of rotting plants and herbs and to the newly popular medical alchemy. Crügner represents the odd side of the Enlightenment: an age where the rationalist co-existed with little concern or contradiction alongside occult hermeticism. Alchemy, and likely Crügner himself, had a foot in both worlds.

The first two works focus on the uses of herbs and plants in alchemy: Crügner explains obscure remedies taken from the noble "Thanne-Baum", then describes over thirty herbs which may be used alchemically. Reflecting the widely-read, widely-travelled Europe of his times, Crügner "refers to Arabic and Hebrew medicine" and "also mentions American medicinal plants" (cf. Brüning 1831).

In the second half of the volume, Crügner's next two works are titled "Chymischer Frühling" and "Chymischer Sommer", which form a set of medical alchemy texts, such as might have been of particular interest to an alchemist-physician. They describe the use of alchemical plants and other compounds against diseases, and heavily incorporate astrology (itself believed to have a great effect on the human body): "Enthält eine Vielzahl medizinischer Anweisungen und Rezepte nicht nur von Kräutern und alle in Bezug auf astrologische Konstellationen betrachtet" (Brüning 1888).

Taken together, these four works bound as one offer a fantastic glimpse into the trends in alchemy in the 1650s, and trace the life and work of one interesting practitioner.