Chemica Curiosa

Swiss Doctor, writer and collector Jean-Jacques Manget (1652-1742) published works on the Europe black plague, heart rhythm disturbances and anatomy.

He also brought out one of the most complete compilations of alchemical writings ever published. Manget's Bibliotheca Curiosa Chemica from 1702 collected 140 alchemical treatises in 2 massive volumes and also presented illustrations from these rare or lost original hermetic texts. Authors included Athanasius Kircher, Roger Bacon, Georg Agricola and Nicholas Flamel.

I don't know whether the anonymous engravings above are original for Manget's books or copies from the compiled texts. There are only fragmentary mentions online and as usual, nothing here should be taken as authoritative. In some instances this work is referred to as Liber Mutus, a famous image-only alchemistry text from the 17th century. Actually, Liber Mutus is included in Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa and all but the first image above do in fact come from there.

The full title --

Bibliotheca chemica curiosa, seu rerum ad alchemiam pertinentium thesaurus instructissimus: quo non tantum Artis Auriferæ, ac scriptorum in ea nobiliorum historia traditur; lapidis veritas argumentis & experimentis innumeris, immo & juris consultorum judiciis evincitur; termini obscuriores explicantur; cautiones contra impostores, & difficultates in tinctura universali conficienda occurrentes, declarantur: Verum etiam tractatus omnes virorum celebriorum, qui in magno sudarunt elixyre, quique ab ipso Hermete, ut dicitur, Trismegisto, ad nostra usque tempora de Chrysopoæ scripserunt, cum præcipuis suis commentariis, concinno ordine dispositi exhibentur. Ad quorum omnium illustrationem additæ sunt quamplurimæ figuræ æneæ.

• The majority of images here come from Biblioteca Forteguerriana via F.Datini - there are about 20 images in total.
• The first image above is from here.
• There is another set of the images in black and white or colour.
• The complete near-2000 page work is available in photocopy quality from Biblioteca de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid - click on 'láminas' to see the illustrations.
• Adam Maclean has a list of all of the treatises and authors in Bibliotheca Curiosa Chemica. [He also has all the plates from Liber Mutus in colour]
• The history of alchemy from the Dictionary for the History of Ideas at the University of Virginia.

Trivia: In the antimony entry at wikipedia we are told that Manget's text outlines how the 15th century alchemical manuscripts of the either mythical or famous Basil Valentine were found. Allegedly they were enclosed in an Abbey pillar for a century and were rediscovered when the pillar was struck by a thunder bolt. Or so the story goes..