Sale 2501 - Early Printed, Medical, Scientific & Travel Books, March 7, 2019

203 c   WIER [or WEYER], JOHANN. De lamiis liber. Item de comementitiis ieiuniis. Woodcut portraits of the author on title verso, and Barbara Kremers on H4v. 6 [i. e., 5] pages, 7-134 columns, [3] leaves. 4to, 236x183 mm, contemporary calf with medallion head roll border around small gilt eagle stamp on front cover and fleuron on rear cover, lacking ties, rebacked, endpapers renewed; contents clean, small hole in H1 affecting a couple of letters. Large armorial bookplate of Ambrosius Franz von Viermund und Neersen (1684-1744). Basel: Officina Oporiniana, 1577 [800/1,200] first abridged edition of the author’s 1563 De praestigiis daemonum, an early attack on belief in witchcraft and the persecution of witches, whose behavior the author attributed to mental illness. Columns 107-134 contain an exposé of alleged miraculous fasting centering on the case of the 10-year-old Barbara Kremers, who supposedly lived for more than a year without food or drink. Garrison-Morton 4916 (original version); Durling 4733 (this edition). 204 204 c   WIRDIG, SEBASTIAN. Nova medicina spirituum. 2 double-page engraved plates. [42], 238, [2]; 3-284 [i. e., 274], [14] pages, including blank K12. 2 parts in one volume. 12mo, 134x71 mm, contemporary binding of manuscript vellum over boards, stain at top and bottom of spine; contents clean; gray edges. Hamburg: Gottfried Schultze, 1673 [250/350] first edition . “A very curious work, attributing the causes of many diseases to ‘spirits’ and basing their cure on this theory. There is a great deal on insanity. The methods of treatment are partly chemical, partly magnetical, even such modern ideas as suggestion and other mental treatments are proposed”—Duveen, page 622. Krivatsy 13062. medicine , continued