This continuously growing library collection includes rare books from the Othmer Library of Chemical History. The collection includes works donated to the library by notable collectors including Donald Othmer, the Chemists' Club, Herb Pratt, Alfred Bader, and Robert E. Schofield. Only a small portion of the library's rare books have been digitized.
Please note, this collection excludes rare books donated by Roy G. Neville, whose sizable donation can be found partially digitized here.
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32 items
The most famous history of the learned fryer Bacon
- shewing his parentage and birth, how he came to be a scholar and to study art-magick ; with the many wonderful things he did in his life-time, to the amazement of the whole world, in making a brazen head, to have walled all England with brass ; with his penitent death, also, the merry waggeries of his man Miles ; and the exploits of Vandermaster, a German, and Fryer Bungy, an English conjurer ; with the manner of their woful deaths, as a warning to others ; being all very profitable and pleasant to the reader
- 1500s
An early edition of an anonymous chapbook written probably towards the end of the sixteenth century, on which Robert Greene may have founded his play "The honorable historie of Friar Bacon and Friar Bongay." Many…
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142 items
Liber de arte Distillandi de Compositis
- Book on the Art of Distilling Compounds
- 1512
Hieronymus Brunschwig (circa 1453-cira 1513) was a surgeon in the Imperial Free City of Strasbourg who published on subjects including medicine, the plague, and surgery, though his most important works were those…
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33 items
Medical and alchemical recipes : autograph manuscript
- 1550s
Dutch or Flemish apothecary's reference pocketbook with recipes, remedies, and customers' names, all written in Dutch. The majority of the recipes and remedies relate to women's illnesses and the plague. The final notes…
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45 items
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323 items
Pandora, das ist, Die edleste Gab Gottes
- Pandora, That Is, the Noblest Gift of God
- 1582
First edition. This copy lacks parts of pages 2 and 7 as well as pages 183-184 and 255-256. The missing text on pages 2 and 7 was replaced in handwritten pencil at an unknown date. The work was edited by the physician…
- Author Epimetheus, Franciscus
- Editor Reusner, Hieronymus, b. 1558
- Printer Apiarius, Samuel, -1590
- Subject Alchemy, Medicine, Reusner, Hieronymus, b. 1558, Mythology, Greek, Symbolism in art
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11 items
Basilica chymica
- continens philosophicam propriâ laborum experientiâ confirmatam descriptionem et usum remediorum chymicorum selectissimorum é lumine gratiae et naturae desumptorum
- 1611
Basilica chymica: continens philosophicam propriâ laborum experientiâ confirmatam descriptionem et usum remediorum chymicorum selectissimorum é lumine gratiae et naturae desumptorum: in fine libri additus est authoris…
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262 items
La pyrotechnie de Hanzelet
- Lorrain ou sont représentés les plus rares et plus appreuvez secrets des machines et des feux artificiels. Propres pour assiéger battre surprendre et deffendre toutes places
- 1630
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164 items
Integrum morborum mysterium
- Sive medicinae catholicae tomo primi Tractatus secundus, in Sectiones distributus duas
- 1631
Integrum morborum mysterium: Sive medicinae catholicae tomo primi Tractatus secundus, in Sectiones distributus duas was published in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1631.
This first edition is a compendium of the occult…
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46 items
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322 items
The Mysteries of Nature and Art
- In Foure Severall Parts: The first of Water works, The second of Fire works, The third of Drawing, Washing, Limming, Painting and Engraving, The fourth of sundry Experiments
- 1635
- Author Bate, John
- Printer Harper, Thomas, -1656
- Subject Bate, John, Fireworks, Waterworks, Science--Experiments, Metallurgy, Engraving, Art--Technique, Machinery
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6 items
Guilielmi Harvei doct. & profess. Regii Exercitatio Anatomica De Motu Cordis & Sanguinis
- Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis
- An anatomical essay on the movement of the heart and blood
- 1648
William Harvey (1578-1657) was an English physician who discovered the circulation of the blood. He correctly described the motion of the heart as a contraction that forced blood out of the left ventricle into the…
- Author Harvey, William, 1578-1657
- Publisher Ex Officinâ Arnoldi Leers
- Contributor Sylvius, Zacharias, Back, Jacobus de, approximately 1594-1658
- Subject Blood--Circulation, Blood, Oxygen in the body, Heart, Cardiovascular system, Harvey, William, 1578-1657
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9 items
Viatorium, hoc est, De montibus planetarum septem seu metallorum
- 1651
Frontispiece, title page, all plates from De montibus planetarum septem seu metallorum.
- Author Maier, Michael, 1568?-1622
- Subject Alchemy, Alchemy--Early works to 1800
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2 items
Theatrum sympatheticum auctum
- exhibens varios authores, de pulvere sympathetico quidem
- 1662
The 16th- and 17th-centuries saw a flurry of interest in "sympathetic medicine," or curing at a distance. It originated with the so-called "weapon salve" attributed to Paracelsus, which applied to the weapon that…
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588 items
Kunst Buch von allerhandt rahren undt schönen inventionen so wohl in der Feuerwerckerey Kunst als auch in der Büchsenmeisterey zusammen
- 1671
A manuscript work from Andreas Räbel, a 17th-century pyrotechnician, containing formulas and recipes for the creation of fireworks, explosives, rockets, detonators, flares, bombs, and other armament. The recipes call…
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32 items
Musaeum Regalis Societatis, or, A Catalogue and Description of the Natural and Artificial Rarities Belonging to the Royal Society and Preserved at Gresham Colledge
- A Catalogue and Description of the Natural and Artificial Rarities Belonging to the Royal Society and Preserved at Gresham College
- 1681
One of the earliest scientific societies, The Royal Society prided itself on following the precepts of Francis Bacon and taking an empirical approach to nature. The foundation of that approach was "matters of fact."…
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42 items
Rariora musei Besleriani quae olim Basilius et Michael Rupertus Besleri collegerunt, aeneisque tabulis ad vivum incisa evulgarunt
- 1716
A description with commentary, by Johann Heinrch Lochner (1695-1715) of the natural history museum of Nuremberg apothecaries Basilius Besler (1561-1629) and his nephew Michael Rupert Besler (1607-1661). The collection…
- Contributor Besler, Basilius, 1561-1629, Besler, Michael Rupert, 1607-1661
- Author Lochner, Johann Heinrich, 1695-1715
- Engraver Heumann, Georg Daniel, 1691-1759
- Artist Heumann, Georg Daniel, 1691-1759
- Subject Natural history, Natural history museums, Besler, Basilius, 1561-1629, Besler, Michael Rupert, 1607-1661
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15 items
Essay sur les feux d'artifice pour le spectacle et pour la guerre
- Essay on fireworks for spectacle and for war
- 1745
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6 items
Essai sur l'electricité des corps
- 1746
Jean-Antoine Nollet (1700-1770) was an 18th-century French experimental physicist known for discovering osmosis in 1748 and conducting foundational research on electricity. This book, published in 1746, features an…
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19 items
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22 items
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18 items
Oeuvres Physiologiques, Volume 2
- Traité des Sensations et des Passions en Général, et des Sens en Particulier, Ouvrage Divisé en Deux Parties.
- La Théorie de L'ouie
- 1767
The second of three volumes by Claude-Nicolas Le Cat (1700-1768), a French surgeon, lithotomist, researcher, and science communicator. Volume two was originally published as the Traité des sens in Rouen in 1740,…
- Author Le Cat, Claude-Nicolas, 1700-1768
- Publisher Chez Vallat-La-Chapelle
- Engraver Bacheley, Jacques, 1712-1781
- Subject Senses and sensation, Sense organs, Physiology, Le Cat, Claude-Nicolas, 1700-1768, Vision, Hearing, Smell, Touch, Taste
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30 items
L'art du Distillateur d'Eaux-Fortes, &c.
- 1773
Part of a series published between 1761 and 1788 by the Parisian Académie des Sciences entitled Descriptions des arts et métiers, or Descriptions of the Arts and Trades. The full series comprises 113 folio volumes and…
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31 items
L'art du Distillateur Liquoriste: Contenant le Bruleur d'Eaux-de-vie, le Fabriquant de Liqueurs, le Débitant ou le Cafetier-Limonnadier
- The Art of the Liqueur Distiller: Containing the Brandy Burner, the Liqueur Maker, the Bartender or the Lemonade Maker
- 1775
Part of a series published between 1761 and 1788 by the Parisian Académie des Sciences entitled Descriptions des arts et métiers, or Descriptions of the Arts and Trades. The full series comprises 113 folio volumes and…
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7 items
Annales de Chimie
- Recueil de mémoires concernant la chimie et les arts qui en dépendent
- 1791 – 1793
The title page of the Annales de Chimie changed repeatedly in the first few years of its publication in response to rapid changes brought about by the French Revolution. Initially it published with the permission and…
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2 items
Lavoisier manuscript
- 1791-Sep-28
A document signed by Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794) as the Director of Government Powder Mills (1776-1794)
- Creator Of Work Lavoisier, Antoine Laurent, 1743-1794
- Subject Lavoisier, Antoine Laurent, 1743-1794
