THE ORDINALL OF ALCHIMY BY THOMAS NORTON OF BRISTOLL. BEING A FACSIMILE REPRODUCTION FROM THEATRUM CHEMICUM BRITANNICUM WITH ANNOTATIONS BY ELISAS ASHMOLE
Book Details + Condition: Edward Arnold and Co. (London). First Facsimile Edition, 1928. Hardcover with brown cloth boards and yellow textile backstrip. 131 pages, with black-and-white illustrations of the alchemist at work. Scarce facsimile reproduction of Thomas Norton's landmark work from the 1652 compendium, Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, with annotations by Elias Ashmole. The work contains pages 1 to 106 of Ashmole’s original 1652 edition. Norton was a prominent alchemist of the 15th century whose original 1477 text is a Middle English didactic poem consisting of over 3,000 lines in rhyming couplets. It serves as a comprehensive philosophical and practical treatise on alchemy, covering the nature of metals, the search for the philosopher's stone, transmutation, and the moral or spiritual requirements of an alchemist. The work is divided into seven parts, each of which covers a different aspect of the alchemical process.
Firm binding; light shelf wear to boards, with 2 areas of spotting to front cover; owner stamp to inside front board; some foxing to text block, endpapers and first few pages; interior is otherwise clean and free of markings. All books are carefully packed, and shipped in boxes.
