Baroque recipe book with noble sources
Kunst-Reich-Hoch Rüehmliches Artzney Buech, welchs aus sonderbahren und vornemben Büchern, durch wohlerfahrne, berüembte Doctores, u. a. erfahrnen Medicis nicht allein zusamben gezogen, sondern auch aus sonderbahren fleiß probiert worden. Ingleichen ist hierin zufindten, wie man allerhandt räre Aquaevitae, und köstliche Wässer, auch Pulfer, Salben, Pflaster, Purgationes, Stritzel, Lattwergen, u. Edelgestain, nit allein wie selbig zupraeparieren, sondern auch auff was weiß u. manier den Patienten solche Medicamenten zugebrauchen.
Folio (217 x 318 mm). German manuscript on paper. 608 unnumbered, 89 numbered, 4 unnumbered ff. (some blank). Contemporary pigskin over prettily blindstamped wooden boards; two clasps.
€ 18,000.00
A very extensive manuscript recipe book, undoubtedly the handiwork of a noble lady, containing a plethora of ointments, balms, waters, powders, purgations and other treatments, many of special gynecological interest.
Most of the names of witnesses or sources provided for individual recipes are those of women, which agrees with the observation made by Schelenz in his History of Pharmacy that the medicine chests and apothecaries kept at noble mansions and princely courts were commonly administered by the 'lady of the house' and that the preparation of medical drugs was a traditional demesne of aristocratic women (cf. pp. 443f.). The sources of the earliest entries, probably compiled from earlier family recipe books, indicate a relationship to the Electorate of Saxony ("Das rothe Aqua vitae, wie es mein liebe Frau Muetter von der Churfürstin von Sachßen erhalten", "Hertzog Johann Casimir zu Sachßen etc. Wasser vor die Fraiß", "Das gelbe Aqua vitae, wie Hertzog Johann Friedrich von Saxen gebraucht hat", etc.). The majority of the entries credited to a source, however, are from 17th century figures connected to the Habsburg monarchy ("Frau von Zinßendorff", "Gräfin Buchheimb", "Freyle Anna Maria von Auersperg", countess Esther Hardegg, Frau von Teuffenbach, countess Althann, countess Urschenbeck, countess Starhemberg, Frau von Herberstorff, etc.). Among the further authorities cited are Anton de Pozzis (d. 1675), personal physician to the emperor, one "Dr. Pröll", and a "Turckhish doctor".
Written in meticulous German script with calligraphic headings; includes a detailed table of contents.
Collector's ownership stamp "Konrad Ginzberger" (ca. 1900, probably the Lower Austrian railway official of that name from Weidling near Klosterneuburg). Later offered at Hartung & Hartung (Munich), sale 104 (2002), lot 13.
Binding very well preserved, interior nearly spotless. Begins with 3 blank leaves; each section is followed by several leaves for additions (blank save for a ruled border); final leaf blank.
Cf. Schelenz, Geschichte der Pharmazie (Berlin, 1904).