Bibliopoly

ROSENBERG, Johann Karl

Rhodologia seu philosophica-medica generosae rosae descriptio flosculis philosophicis, philolog. philiatr. politicis, chym. etc. adornata.

Strasbourg, Markus von Heyden, 1628 1628

Description

8vo (152 x 92 mm), pp [xvi] 316 [recte 320], with engraved title; a very good copy in contemporary vellum with yapp-edges, spine lettered in ink and with slightly later paper label (defective). £6500

First edition, a beautiful copy of the very rare first book on roses.
Rosenberg opens with a description of the symbolic value, heraldic uses (from Luther to the Rosicrucians), erotic connotations, and religious symbolism of the flos florum. The second part describes the medicinal properties of the rose and its products. He identifies 18 different hybrids and 19 varieties of the wild rose, frequently referring to Brunfels, Bauhin, Camerarius and the Hortus Eystettensis.
Rosenberg links the rose to the alchemical concept of nature, stating that in the rose the three principles - salt, sulphur and mercury - are united, and ascribes to the plant a central role in metaphysical speculation. He proceeds with a description of the rose's anatomy, and discusses in detail its fragrance, and its cause. The final pages provide detailed instructions on how to distil rose water, produce rose oil, and how to concoct various remedies and fragrances derived from roses. The author was a medical doctor from Strasbourg and held the post of town physician of Worms on the Rhine.
Bound after is a copy of Ternarius ternariorum hermeticorum, Erfurt, 1630, the second edition of Angelo Sala's work on antidotes.

Pritzel 7768; Vergara, Bibliographía de la rosa p 128; not in any other bibliography or collection catalogue consulted; NUC: MH MoSB WU; no further locations in OCLC