ALCHEMICAL SAMMELBAND. AUBIGNÉ DE LA FOSSE, Nathan (1601 - c. 1669). Bibliotheca Chemica Contracta. Geneva: Jean Antoine and Samuel De Tournes, 1653. 8vo. Roman and Italic letter, printed side notes, first title in red and black, printer’s woodcut device on title pages, a few decorative headpieces and foliated initials (title page a bit dusty, light age yellowing, some spotting and staining, small paper flaw to title page, lacking rear endpaper). Contemporary vellum over boards, yapp edges (rather soiled and stained, slightly rubbed). Provenance: Georg Ernst, count of Erbach (1629-1669), inscribed on front free endpaper; many leaves in “Novum Lumen Chemicum” with several old annotations and underlining. FIRST EDITION of this collection of important alchemical texts which represented a turning point in the literary tradition, including works by Hermes Trismegistos (Tabula Smaragdina); D’Espagnet (Enchiridion Physicæ Restitutæ and Arcanum Hermeticæ Philosophiæ Opus); the Polish alchemist Sendivogius (Novum Lumen Chemicum and De Sulphure Tractatus); Giovanni Augurelli (Chrysopoeia and Vellus Aureum); as well as by Aubigné de la Fosse himself, a physician and the son of the poet and protestant writer Theodore Agrippa, such as the Carmen Aureum, which here appeared for the first time. Caillet 147; Duveen p.10; Ferguson, I, 17.