Les secrets miracles de Nature, et divers enseignemens de plusieurs choses, par raison probable & artiste coniecture

LEMNIUS, Levinus Les secrets miracles de nature, et divers enseignemens de plusieurs choses, par raison probable & artiste coniecture ; exposez en deux livres — Lyon, Jean Frellon, 1566 — 12mo, 459 pp. followed by 37 pages of table. Complete. 19th-century binding. Leather spine with 4 compartments and red title label, boards with corners. Split joints, but the whole remains solid. Dampstaining, more pronounced on the title page and at the end of the volume. The text is entirely preserved. First French edition, translated by Antoine Du Pinet, of the Latin treatise Occulta naturae miracula published at Antwerp in 1559. Colophon dated 10 August 1566. An emblematic work of the Renaissance literature of "secrets", organised in two books with final tables. It is above all a treatise of medicine and natural philosophy. It gathers observations on the human body, health, plants, animals and nature, with rational explanations and learned conjectures. The term "secrets" refers to natural knowledge that was rare or hardly accessible at the time, such as remedies, recipes or curiosities of nature. The work was later placed on the Index by the Catholic Church, for certain positions judged heterodox, from the end of the 16th century until the 20th century. This book made its mark on its time through its translations and its European circulation (Netherlands, France, England, Italy). The author, was a Dutch physician trained at Louvain, combining clinical observations with classical erudition. A copy in French, rare on the market. Coumont [L51D.36].