Botany and pharmacology

  AMBROSIONI, Felice. Manuale per i Droghieri ossia storia, provenienza, e carattere delle droghe, e di altre sostanze destinate agli usi medici, ed alle arti. Sulle loro falsificazioni e sul modo di scoprirle. Pavia, P. Bizzoni, 1823-1824.

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First edition, a very rare methodically organized manual for both druggists and artisans by Ambrosioni, head pharmacist at the Ospedale Pavese.

Alphabetically arranged, Ambrosioni describes a large number of substances, either vegetable based, compounds, or chemicals, and accompanied by instructions on methods of preparation. Most are for medicinal use, a few have artisanal application, such as for the cleaning of metals or dyeing. Ambrosioni also instructs on how to detect alterations. 

A scientist of great reading, the work contains much historical detail on the simples and compounds described, and their geographical or cultural origins. His interest in developing modern techniques for the conservation of bodies led him to study the use of natron in ancient mummification procedures, for which he travelled to Egypt. 

CRANZ, Johann Heinrich Nepomuk. Classis cruciformium emendata cum figuris aeneis in necessarium instit. rei herbariae supplementum.  Leipzig, Kraus, at the expense of the author, 1769. 

 £1700

First edition of the Austrian physician and botanist’s work on brassicaceae or cruciferae, in which the author critically discusses various aspects of plant classification as put forward by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, John Ray, Michel Adanson, Albrecht von Haller, and Carolus Linnaeus in particular.

As per the wording of the title, Cranz intends his monograph on the family of Brassicaceae to ‘supplement’ botanical knowledge.

NELJUBIN, Aleksandr Petrovič.  Farmakografija, ili Chimiko-vracebnije predpisanija prigotovlenija i upotreblenija novejsich lekarstv [Pharmacography, or pharmaco-dynamic and chemico-pharmaceutical treatment of the preparation and usage of the newest remedies]. St. Petersburg, Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1827. 

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First edition, finely bound in contemporary green morocco, of the extremely rare first Russian pharmacopoeia - seemingly unrecorded in Western holdings - by the highly acclaimed pharmacologist Aleksandr Petrovič Neljubin, a founding father of the Russian pharmacological school.

Following an apprenticeship in pharmacology and studies at the Medical-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg, Neljubin obtained his doctorate there in 1821, from which year he held the chair of pharmacology at the Academy. In 1824 he was promoted to the professorship in Pharmacology and Botany, headed the Academy on several occasions as their president, and directed one of the major the military hospitals between 1848 and 1858 as chief physician. 

Indefatigable, he also worked as an obstetrician from 1816, and became Town Obstetrician to the St. Petersburg district of Vyborg from 1817 to 1831. In 1822-1823 he travelled to the Caucasus to analyse the mineral waters there, and in 1830-1832 he actively participated in fighting the then raging cholera epidemic in St. Petersburg. Between 1831 and 1841 he furthermore acted as Scientific Secretary of the Medical Council, and also as Vice Director of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry from 1831 to 1837. 

Neljubin outlines the purpose of his work in the Farmakografija’s preface. Constantly amended and updated, Neljubin’s Farmakografijawent through a number of printings. Another edition was published at St. Petersburg in three volumes in 1831, and a fourth, four volume edition in the 1840s.

The work is dedicated to ‘His Excellency, Yakov Vasilievich Viliye’ that is Sir James Wylie (1768-1854), 1st Baronet. Wylie was a Scottish physician and a man of extraordinary character and reputation, who served as a battlefield surgeon and court physician in the Russian Empire from 1790 until his death in 1854, and as President of the Imperial Medical and Surgical Academy from 1808 to 1838. He is considered one of the organizers of military medicine in Russia. 

RHAGOR, Daniel. Pflantz=Gart darinn grundtlicher Bericht zu finden, welcher gestalten 1. Obs=Gärten 2. Kraut-Gärten 3. Wein=Gärten. Mit lust und nutz anzustellen, zu bawen, und zu erhalten. Sampt zu End eines jeden Capitels beygefügter Verteutschung der fürnembsten, zu demselbigen dienstlicher Lateinischer und Frantzösischer Wörteren: Vermehret mit einem sehr nutzlichen Bericht, was dess Pflantzens halb 1. In gewissen Monaten fürzunehmen 2. Auff etlichen nammhaften Tagen zu halten 3. Auss der Witterung zu schliessen seye. Bern, Georg Sonnleitner for heirs of Rhagor, 1650.

£1400

Second edition of Rhagor’s influential work on gardening, the third part of which exclusively discusses the cultivation of a vineyard.

‘It deals with the cultivation of fruit trees, vegetables, and vineyards, and it is largely based on the author’s first-hand experience. Daniel Rhagor (1577-1648) was a Bernese magistrate, and his book is the oldest German-language on practical gardening written by a Swiss’ (Eva Ruoff, Ein schweizerisches Gartenbautraktat aus dem 17. Jahrhundert).

[TUSCAN LOGGING REGULATIONS]. Provisione sopra le legne da tagliarsi, fatta d’ordine del Serinissimo Gran Duca die Toscana, et per partito delli Molto Magnifici, & Clariss. Signori Luogotenente, & Consiglieri della Republica Fiorentina, questo di xxix. di Novembre, MDLXXV. Florence, Giunti, [1575].

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A very rare ‘provision’ or statute passed by the Grand Duke of Tuscany regarding the protection of forests and woods.

These regulations bear on a large area of Tuscany. The parameters and the areas covered are well described and outlined, and the various towns and places subject to the regulations are individually named.

Whether decreed for economic or environmental reasons at the time, this is a rather interesting and early piece demonstrating concern regarding the necessity of protection of an essential natural goods due to increasing scarcity, and with the ever increasing advance of forest destruction in the Amazon and elsewhere and modern, scientific, knowledge of these forests’ role as a ‘lung’ of our planet, a decree that seems even more poignant now than at the time of publication.

  VIÑABURU, Pedro de. Cartilla Pharmaceutica, Chimico-Galenica, en la qual se trata de las diez consideraciones de los Canones de Mesue, y algunas definiciones Chimicas, para utilidad de la Juventud. Pamplona, Josef Miguel de Ezquerro, 1778.

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A very rare little vernacular ‘chemico-galenic’ pharmacology of pedagogical purpose by one of the most important Spanish apothecaries of the time.

Written in a didactic style in question and answer form, the book is a resume for students of the Canons of Mesue.