[Rarebooks] fa: ALBERTUS MAGNUS: DE SECRETIS MULIERUM + DE VIRTUTIBAS HERBARUM &c. 1669

[ArCh]

Auctions ending Sunday, March 19. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

https://tinyurl.com/2n9v76rr

Many thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


Albertus Magnus; [Michael Scot]: De Secretis Mulierum : Item De Virtutibus Herbarum Lapidum et Animalium. Amstelodami [Amsterdam]: Henricum et Theod. Boom, 1669. Small 12mo (12.5 cm) in later half calf and marbled boards, page edges dyed red; 329 + [7] pp. (last leaf in facsimile); engraved title-page; woodcut initials.

Contents with age-toning and some intermittent damp-staining, a few small spots and stains, occasional marginal marks and notations by previous owners (a few in colored pencil), the last page of the index provided in facsimile; early owner's ink signature to the recto of the front free-endpaper, with a gift inscription (in Latin) on the verso. "De secretis mulierum": p. 3-118; "De virtutibus herbarum": p. 118-[157]; "Alberti Magni Libellus mirabilibus mundi": p. [158]-203.; "Michaelis Scoti Libellus de secretis naturae": p. 204-329. Lacking pp. 149-164, comprising parts of the second and third works.

The first work, De Secretis Mulierum [Of the Secrets of Women], has been variously attributed to Albertus Magnus (c. 1200-1280), Henricus de Saxonia, Albertus de Saxonia, and others. For this reason, its authorship is often credited to "Pseudo-Albertus Magnus." A notorious - and predictably misogynistic - treatise on female sexuality and human reproduction, intended to instruct celibate monks in the facts of life. The work was hugely popular from the late middle ages well into modern times.