Miscellanea III

Collection of seventeen tracts, of which eight are printed, in Spanish, Italian and Latin, dealing with comets, prodigies, mineral waters, fortune-telling by numbers, medical and household receipts, etc.

c. 1655-1696

1 volume 184 pp. folio. & v.s. 19th cent. half-calf binding. Some margins slightly frayed, and pages stained: p. 67/8 is wrongly bound, and should follow p. 113/4. The printed pieces, marked below*, are of various formats, and the first and fifth tracts on Comets are illustrated with pen-drawn figures.

Purchased at Sotheby's 24/6/1919. Lot 66.

The collection has been paginated in pencil by Sir Thomas Philipps [1792-1872], and on p. 155 is a pencilled note by him, initialled 'T. P.' dated 1847. In it he says 'The 12 missing pages were duplicates of the account of the hurricane in page 139. Which I shall give to the following Libraries: (1) Royal Society. (2) British Museum. (3) Captain W. H. Smyth.' The last named is presumably Admiral William Henry Smyth [1788-1865]. Phillipps MS. 9021.

Database description transcribed from S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973).