Aqua Vitae. It’s Commodities describ’d by Richard Stanihurst and delineated by Bridget Swinton. The text edited by Lawrence Ryan from the edition of 1586 & printed at the Dolmen Press in 1954 is here reset and reprinted. June 1956. Original sewn wrappers printed in orange and black. A nice bright copy.

Richard Stanyhurst (1547–1618) was an Anglo-Irish alchemist, translator, poet, and historian, born in Dublin.

During the early 1590s, while residing in Dunkirk, he turned his attention to chemical medicine and created a remarkable potion that, according to contemporary claims, cured numerous gravely ill patients. News of its effects reached Philip II, who summoned Stanyhurst to Madrid in 1591 to carry out further experiments in chemical medicine.