LOCATELLI Lodovico, da Bergamo. Theatro d'Arcani; nel quale si tratta dell'Arte Chimica, & suoi Arcani, con gli Afforismi d'Ippocrate Commentati da Paracelso, etc. L'espositione d'alcune Cifre, e Caratteri oscuri de Filosofi. Milano, Ramellati, 1644.

Small 8vo mm. 170 x 120; Contemporary full vellum binding; pp. [56], 456. Slight sign of foxing and dampstain.

First edition, very rare, of this treaty on chemistry, dedicated to the Earl Mattia Galasso, and addressed to doctors and "apothecaries", which describes the main chemical and pharmaceutical preparations of the time, including some balms of the same Locatelli. There are also talks of the philosopher's stone, quicksilver, curriculum dell'aurum and other curious topics. At the end of a summary of the Aphorisms of Hippocrates and Paracelsus a comment to them, and on pp. 409-13 the representation of "chemical characteristics", derived from Crollius.Missing the pictorial frontispiece.

Duveen, p. 364; Ferguson, Books of Secrets, I/p. 12; Sudhoff, Bibl. Paracelsica, pp. 566-7; Krivatsy, 7074; Calvi, Scrittori Bergamaschi, pp. 353-4; Vinciana, Autt. Ital. del '600, n. 2203.