CASPARIS CALDERAE DE HEREDIA, TRIBUNAL, MEDICUM, MAGICUM, ET POLITICUM.

Lugduni Batavorum, Apud Johannem Elsevirium, 1658.. FIRST EDITION 1658, Latin text, in 2 parts with title page to Part II: "Casparis Calderae de Heredia civitatis Hispalensis medici ordinarii, Tribunal magicum, quo omnia quae ad magiam spectant, accuratè tranctantur & explanantur, seu, Tribunalis medici pars altera", folio in fours, approximately 350 x 220 mm, 13¾ x 8½ inches, title page printed red and black, printer's pictorial device, a few pictorial head- and tailpieces, printed in double column, pages: Part I, [12], 534, [22]; Part II, 194, [22]; signatures: Part I, *4, **², A-Zzz4, Aaaa2; Part II, A-Z4, Aa-Dd4, Bb2 and Bb3 bound out of order in Index to Part II, bound in full contemporary vellum, early Gothic hand lettering to spine, endpapers sympathetically replaced. Spine rebacked with original backstrip laid on, corners slightly worn, vellum slightly marked, lower cover slightly stained, title page slightly darkened at fore-edge, title leaf, next leaf and final leaf strengthened neatly at fore-edge, large pale brown stain to lower inner corner from **1-I4, not affecting legibility, 2 tiny erosion holes in lower margin of C4, occasional light age-browning or pale foxing, some dark spotting to some pages, heavy in a few places, all easily legible, occasional small light stain to margins. A very good tight copy. This work gathers together various essays by the Spanish physician Caldera de Heredia (b. 1591), chiefly on medicine which occupies the whole of the first part and a large part of the second. In the rest of the second he also discusses magic including black and white, alchemy and the treatment of magicians by the Inquisition. The final section is on politics with much on utopias. The medical sections consider the plague epidemics which affected Spain from 1647-1649, the problems of impotence, and the virtues of drinking chocolate, amongst many other topics. See: Albert Caillet, Manuel Bibliographique des Sciences Psychiques ou Occultes, Volume I, page 287, No. 1952; Peter Krivatsy, Catalogue of Seventeenth Century Books in the National Library of Medicine, Volume II, page 199, No. 2007; Catalogue of Printed Books in the Wellcome Medical Library, Volume II, page 287, listing only the sequel of 1663. MORE IMAGES ATTACHED TO THIS LISTING, ALL ZOOMABLE, FURTHER IMAGES ON REQUEST. POSTAGE AT COST.