Pharmacopée royale, galénique et chymique.

4to: front.-[12]-1060-[34] pp.; 6 pl. (foxing, damp stains to upper margins, marg. ink stain to p. 336, some quires sl. age-toned).

Contemp. mottled calf, gilt orn. spine with raised bands, red spr. edges (sl. rubbed, joints splitting, joints and edges partly renewed). Wide-margined copy.

Rare first edition by the French pharmacist during the reign of Louis XIV Moyse Charas (1619-1698), who became famous for publishing compendiums of medication formulas, which played a vital role in the development of modern pharmacy and chemistry. His "Pharmacopée royale", was an example of this, containing one of the earliest comprehensive classifications of chemical elements and compounds which can be regarded as the precursor of chemical symbols and the periodic table. His table contains nine elements (lead, tin, iron, gold, copper, quicksilver, sulfur and arsenic - he listed sulfur and arsenic under minerals of chemical compound) and assigned symbols to the seven metals corresponding to the known celestial bodies at the time: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury and the Moon. Using these chemical symbols he tried to predict the chemical properties of chemical compounds. Ill. with a frontispiece, an engr. dedication to Colbert and 6 full-page engr. pl. showing among others a double pelican (KK) and alembics.
Ref. Wellcome II:327. - Krivatsy 2371. - Greenberg, A. - From alchemy to chemistry in picture and story, pp. 12-13. - BnF. - Not in Bibl. Walleriana.
Prov. Charles Feron, doctor (ms. entry). - Thomas Fraser Duff (1830-1877) (armorial bookpl.).