Reverende et Eximie Dne
in Christo Pater

Librum hunc ab Amico Singulari mihi testamento relictum, (mox) eundem tibi amicissime Athanisi ubi primum possidere coepi. (animo) destinavi: Si quidem persuasum habui a nullo nisi abste legi posse. (Petijs) aliquando per litteras ejusdem libri tum possessor judicium tuum parte aliqua libri â se descripta et tibi transmissa, ex qua relitya a te legi posse persuasum habuit, verum librum ipsum transmittere tum recusabat, in quo discifrando posuit indefessum laborem, uti manifestum ex conatibus ejusdem hic una tibi transmissis, neq prius huius spei quam vita sua finem fecit. Verum labor hic frustraneus fuit, si quidem non nisi suo Kirchero obediunt ejus modi Sphinges. Accipe ergo modo quod pridem tibi debebatur hoc qualecunque mei egra te affectus indicium, huiusq Seras, si quae sunt, consueta tibi felicitate perrume, retulis mihi D. Doctor Raphael Ferdinandi tertij Regis tum Boemia in lingua Boemia instructor dictum librum fuisse Rudolphi Imperatoris, pro quo ipse labri qui librum attulisset 600 ducatos prossentavit, authorem vero ipsum putabat esse Rogerium Bacionem Anglum ego judicium meum hic suspendo, tu vero quid nobis hic Sentiendum define, eujus favori et gratis me totum commendo maneoq

Rtia Vestra (ae?)

Ad absequia
Joannes Marcus Marci
a Cronland

Praga 19 Augusti A.D. 1666 (5)

Reverend and Excellent Lord
and Father in Christ

This book which was left me by the will of a good friend I resolved to send
straightway to you, dear Athanasius, as soon as I came into possession of it.
I was quite convinced that no one could read it if you could not. He once,
when he was the owner of the book, asked for your judgment by letter and
copied out and sent you a part of the book. From this (The expression is
vague - The relative "qua" must refer to "parte" It seems to mean that
Kircher pronounced an opinion on the "part" sent him from which the owner
drew the conclusion that Kircher would probably be able to read the whole.)
he was convinced that you could read the rest but he was unwilling to send you at
that time the book itself He spent unwearied effort on deciphering (?) it
as is clear from his attempts which I send you herewith, and did not abandon
the hope as long as life lasted. However, his effort was fruitless.
Sphinxes of this sort certainly yield to none but their Kircher.
Accept, therefore, now that which has long been due you, this token, such as
it is, of my regard for you, and break with your customary success the bars
about the book whatever they are.

My lord Doctor Raphael tutor in the Bohemian language to Ferdinand III
when he was king of Bohemia, told me that the said book had belonged to the
Emperor Rudolph and that he had paid 600 ducats for it to the agent who had
brought the book. He himself (i.e. Dr. Raphael) thought the author was
Roger Bacon, the Englishman. I hold my judgment in suspense on this point.
Do you inform me what we should believe about it. I commend myself wholly to your
favor and grace, and remain,

Prague, August 19 A.D. 1666

Reverend and distinguished Sir; Father in Christ:

This book, bequeathed to me by an intimate friend, I destined for you, my very dear Athanasius, as soon as it came into my possession, for I was convinced it could be read by no one except yourself.

The former owner of this book once asked your opinion by letter, copying and sending you a portion of the book from which he believed you would be able to read the remainder, but he at that time refused to send the book itself. To its deciphering he devoted unflagging toil, as is apparent from attempts of his which I send you herewith, and he relinquished hope only with his life. But his toil was in vain, for such Sphinxes as these obey no one but their master, Kircher. Accept now this token, such as it is and long overdue though it be, of my affection for you, and burst through its bars, if there are any, with your wonted success.

Dr. Raphael, tutor in the Bohemian language to Ferdinand III., then King of Bohemia, told me the said book had belonged to the Emperor Rudolph and that he presented to the bearer who brought him the book 600 ducats. He believed the author was Roger Bacon the Englishman. On this point I suspend judgment; it is your place to define for us what view we should take thereon, to whose favor and kindness I unreservedly commit myself and remain

At the command of your Reverence,

Joannes Marcus Marzi
of Cronland.

Prague, 19th August,
1666.

221

MARCUS MARCI A KRONLAND, JOH. Idearum operatri-
cium Idea, sive Hypotyposis et detectio illius occultae Virtutis, quae
Semina faecundat, et ex iisdem Corpora organica producit.—Prague,
Typis Seminarii archiepiscopalis, 1635.—4to. 166 leaves + Errata-leaf.
With engraved title, allegoric frontispiece and a number of engraved
diagrams and curious illustrations.

Thaumantias. Liber de Arcu Coelesti deque Colorum
apparentium natura, ortu, et causis.—Prague, Typis Academicis, 1648.
—4to. 139 leaves. With engraved title, fine portrait of the
author and numerous engraved diagrams and illustrations.

Philosophia vetus restituta. —Prague, Typis Academicis, 1662. 4to. 295 leaves. With engraved title-page. Three works together in one volume. Vellum. £37.10.

The three principal works of the little-known and most interesting
philosopher and physician, Marcus Marci of Prague. Born
1595 at Landskron in Bohemia, died 1667 at Prague; from 1620 until his
death Professor of Medicine in the University of Prague, from 1658 onward
Physician-in-ordinary to Emperor Ferdinand III.

Marcus Marci was an eminent medical man, but also a scholar and thinker of the most varied attainments; a student of the Oriental languages and of Mathematics, of Astronomy (he built his own observatory), of Alchemy and Kabbalah; thus he appears as the true continuator and successor of the scholars and adepts who had worked and taught at Prague under Rudolph II. In the field of Medicine he appears to be mainly a disciple of Paracelsus and Helmont; as an author on natural philosophy he develops considerable originality and does not only show wide reading but a great deal of independent research and original thought. His "Ideae operatrices" are set out as the "seminal ideas" or plastic forces which determine the organism and cause its development from the seed onwards; an investigation expounded with curiously modern experiments on regeneration and with chapters on monsters, freaks and abortions. These "seminal ideas" are further reduced to a mystical indivisible "world-soul" which comprises all single phenomena, so that Marcus' philosophical system appears to be somewhat akin to Neo-Platonism.

The "Thaumantias" or Book on the Rainbow and the Nature of Colours contains a fully reasoned system of Optics and the Theory of Colours; it is frequently referred to by Goethe in the "Farbenlehre." This im-

E. P. GOLDSCHMIDT & Co., Ltd., 45, Old Bond Street, London, W.1.

Cat. 25

portant work contains the discovery of the prismatic dispersion
of light, in which Marcus was the forerunner of Newton.

The books of Marcus Marci are extremely rare on the market and are
not found in many of the big public libraries. This volume contains his
three most important works in excellent copies.

works and moreover three treatises by Giordano Bruno on Bull's
logical system, the Commentaries of H. Cornelius Agrippa and
Val. de Valeriis, and finally that of Jo. Alstedius on the
Ars generalis. All these important texts are not easily found elsewhere
than in this rare volume, which is unfortunately printed on very poor paper
and therefore brownstained as in all copies. Title loose; name on title.

LULLUS, R. See also No. 4, *Agrippa*.

218

MAFFEI CELSO. Delitiosa Explicatio de Sensibilibus Deliciis Paradisi. (At end:) Impressum Verona per me Lucam Antonium Florentinum Anno. D. Mille. cccccciii. die xxix. Ianuarii. (Jan. 29, 1504). 4to. 24 leaves. With several curious and finely engraved initials, and at the end the fine large printer's marks showing Fortuna with a sail, and beneath two putti, the work of the printer himself, and signed L. A. F. F. (= Lucas Antonius Florentinus Fecit). Morocco. £21.

Luc Antonio de' Uberti, the printer of this book and the designer of
the curious woodcut initials and fine printer's device, was a Florentine by
birth and was of considerable importance in the development of Italian
wood engraving during the first half of the XVIth century. It is most
probable that he spent some of his earliest years at Venice, then for two or
three years only he exploited the printing press at Verona where this book
was printed; like the rest of the few products of this short-lived press, it
is very rare. His great importance as a woodcutter lies in the influence
of his native Florentine tradition and technique which he brought to bear
upon the Venetian illustrative art of the time.

This fine printer's mark (125 x 102 mm.) shows all his characteristics,
especially his fondness for a design in white on black ground, and the use
of white lines, here used very effectively in the rays surrounding the central
cartouche with Fortuna. (This device is reproduced in Kristeller: Italien-
ische Buchdruckerzeichen, No. 345). On Luc Antonio de' Uberti see: Prince
d'Essling III, pp. 97-108; Kristeller: Early Florentine Woodcuts, p. xl, sqq.

The book itself is very curious. It deals with the joys of Paradise and
the sublime gratification of the senses of the blest in heaven. The author
goes into extraordinary details on the delights to the senses of smell, taste,
sight, etc., and almost sensuously dilates upon the kisses and embraces shared
by us in our immortal state; some passages read quite blasphemously.

Light water stain in lower blank margins; a few wormholes, one small one piercing the woodcut.

April 10th, 1919.

Miss Louise R. Loomis,
Blooming Grove,
Orange County, N.Y.

My dear Miss Loomis:

I am very glad to know that you are pleased with the
little facsimile. Yes, as you see from the letter, Kircher actually had part
of the copy of the MS. and undoubtedly he was working on it, not on the diagrams
but on the text. Of course, being a Jesuit and professor in the Collegio
Romano, he did not dare to publish a single word about such a condemned necromancer
as Friar Bacon, whose every word, genuine or only attributed to him, was placed
on the index as soon as published.

I expected to find some allusions to the MS. in the so-called Secreta Manuscrita Kircheriana, but unfortunately there are destroyed.

It would interest you to know that Emperor Rudolph
bought my MS. from a great English alchemist and spy, and friend of Queen
Elizabeth, John Dee. John Dee discovered a whole nest of MSS. by Roger Bacon
as a result of the dispersion of monastic libraries during the reign of Henry VIII
He worked on Bacon for many years and left an unpublished MS. in defence of him.
He edited one Bacon MS. and presented three of his MSS. to English Universities.

Sincerely yours,