Ébauche de l'art secret des philosophes. Compilé par autorités extraites des livres des philosophes.

Large 8vo: multiple foliations, texts in French and Latin, black ink with fillet frame in the 1st half (sl. browning, occ. sm. stains).

Green morocco signed Ch. De Samblanx (19th c.), gilt fillets and roll frame on boards, gilt spine on raised bands, pink silk doublures surrounded by gilt fillets and rolls, pink silk endpapers, second marbled endpapers, a.e.g., marbled paper case (spine very sl. faded, but good condition). Nice copy.

The main text (ff. 1-58), by an anonymous writer, in French with some parts in Latin, is preceded by "Visions hermétiques", a short poem by Nuisement, and illustrated with a "hieroglyphic" diagram. Followed by 10 other texts or extracts of esoteric arts and sciences, some of them anonymous: "Magisterium philosophicum [...] dictum a philosophis opus Herculeum" (59-67); "Brevis tractatus de natura elementorum [...] Belgici scriptum Leÿde 1608", by Tornelius Prebellianus (68-80 r°); "Tractatus brevis de universali tinctura in via sicca" (80 v°-95); "De compositione magisterii Sophici"; (97-121); "Brevis tractatus de antiqua chÿmicorum philosophia" (1-11); "Manifestatio occultorum artificiorum", by Basilius Valentinus (with mysterious descriptions of vitriol; 1-19); "De oleo stibii tractatus", by Roger Bacon (1-7); "Opus Saturni", by Johann Isaac Hollandus (1-14); "Tractatus [...] de lapide philosophorum et artificiosa eius preparatione", by Georgius Ripeus (1-41); "Considerationes septemdecim de materia lapidis in usum physicorum" (1-15). Joined: Duke of Arenberg's armorial bookplate (19th cent.). Prov. [Georges Petit].