Beschreibung:

HELMONT, Joannes Baptista van (1579-1644). Ortus medicinae. Id est, initia physicae inaudita. Progressus medicinae novus, in morborum ultionem ad vitam longam . Edited by Franciscus Mercurius van Helmont (1618-1699) - Opuscula medica inaudita. I. De lithiasi. II. De febribus. III. De humoribus Galeni. IV. De peste. Editio secunda multo emendatior . Amsterdam: Ludovic Elzevier, 1648. 4 o (199 x 152 mm). Contemporary sheep, rebacked, retaining original gilt spine. Provenance : J.J. Delaforte, D.M.F (signature on pastedown and title); P. Hewinck (signature on title). FIRST EDITION of Ortus medicinae ; second edition of Opuscula medica inaudita . Helmont, dissatisfied with the "useless logic" of traditional learning, pursued knowledge of the first principles of nature through experimentation. Like Paracelsus, whom he followed, his search was universal: "He sought a cosmological system and a unified view of natural science which would embrace all phenomena" (PMM). Despite the elements of mysticism in his works, he achieved considerable advances in chemistry - being the first to use the term "gas" and to distinguish between different gases - and medicine, as a founder of the modern ontological concept of disease. Helmont "stands at the very begining of the chemical revolution" (PMM); his works contain both elements of alchemy, such as an account of the transmutation of the "alchemist's stone", and scientific ideas, many of which Robert Boyle adopted and developed. Garrison-Morton 665; Heirs of Hippocrates 409; NLM/Krivatsy 5442; Osler 2929; PMM 135; Waller 4307; Wellcome III, p.241; Norman 1048.