Frydau, Johann Ferdinand von

Anonymous MS. on cabbalistic Alchemy: without title or name of author: in German. With a holograph signed Prefatory Note by F. J. von Frydau. Illustrated with 4 full-page symbolic figures in water-colour, and small coloured chemical signs and sigils. The tables at the end are in red and black. The text is by the same hand throughout, and is not that of J. F. von Frydau, found on the second preliminary leaf. This is a statement signed 'v. Friedau [sic]' in cypher, followed by the letters 'F. R. C.': it is dated 1750. In this note he declares that the name of the author is unknown, and that the MS. is unique: that he bought it himself, and that he deposited a sum of 500 ducats as a guarantee that the work should never be printed or copied. 'sondern einzig bei den F.R.C. als ein Heiligthum und Gemeingut aufbewahrt wurden sollen'. A decipherment of the name as 'Friedau' has been written beneath in pencil by Julius Kohn [ -1934].

1750

1 volume 6 ll. (first bl.). + 108 pp. + 5 bl. ll. 4to. 201/2 × 161/2 cm. Original half-vellum binding. Text within red and black rules.

Purchased at Sotheby's, 28/1/1935, Lto 35 (part).

For J. F. Frydau, cf. Ferguson. 'Bibliotheca Chemica'. Vol. I, pp. 294, 295.

Database description transcribed from S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973).