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Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare highlighted image of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
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  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare highlighted image of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare detail of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare interior highlight of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare view of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare selected detail of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare image from the book of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare sample view of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare selected detail of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare interior highlight of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare captivating detail of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare highlighted image of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare highlighted image of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare detail of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare feature view of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare highlighted image of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare detail of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare interior highlight of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare view of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare selected detail of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare image from the book of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare sample view of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare selected detail of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare interior highlight of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare captivating detail of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare highlighted image of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare highlighted image of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare detail of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
  • Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales by Redi, Francesco, a rare feature view of the 1685 - curiosa & occulta book.
Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales

A milestone in seventeenth-century science, with vivid engravings of exotic naturalia, myths, and remedies.

Redi, Francesco

Experimenta Circa Varias Res Naturales
Speciatim Illas Quae Ex Indiis Afferentur. Ut & Alia Eiusdem Opuscula, Quae Pagina Sequenti Narrantur.

1685, Amsterdam (Amstelaedami), Apud Henr. Wetstenium

2nd Edition

$1,200 USD

Overview

Second Latin edition (the first absolute edition is in Italian, in 1671, followed by the Latin 1675 and then this one), of the stand-alone second volume of Redi’s Opusculorum, which gathers three works: Experimenta circa res diversas naturales; the very famous Observationes de viperis; and the Epistola ad aliquas oppositiones factas in suas Observationes circa viperas.

Inside the book

Redi’s Observationes de viperis (included in this edition of Experimenta) famously demolished centuries of folklore about venomous snakes, showing that poison is dangerous only when it enters the bloodstream. He demonstrated that vipers neither drink wine, nor produce venom in the gallbladder, nor cause harm if their poison is swallowed. His discoveries paved the way for the modern science of toxicology, while his moderate and pragmatic approach to remedies, favoring the simplest and most natural medicines, was seen as one of his major contributions to medical practice. Beyond his viper research, Redi examines a wide range of natural substances and curiosities: tobacco, “ciapa” pepper, American spiders, the armadillo, the red fish of the Onan River, the bones of the legendary pesce donna (fish-woman, basically a mermaid), and Chinese fennel, alongside items like vanilla beans and chinchona leaves from the Indies - many of which are depicted in the folding tables with great accuracy. Written in the form of a letter to Athanasius Kircher, these investigations illustrate both Redi’s global reach and his commitment to empirical testing. The engraved frontispiece, signed by Cornelis Decker, allegorically stages Redi’s confrontation with Kircher and other defenders of “received wisdom” in the most teathrical way. Minerva presides at an experimental table equipped with books and microscope, receiving exotic specimens like an armadillo and serpent stones, while reproving a native bearer for credulousity. The volume also contains Redi’s courteous but decisive rejection of Kircher’s belief in the healing power of that stone, reaffirming his motto: only experiment deserves faith. Inside, the folding plates are equally delightful. They may depict laboratory apparatus and natural specimens, but their lines are clear, almost naive, carrying the freshness of discovery. They give the sense that one is peering into Redi’s own cabinet, with jars, plants, and odd creatures arranged not only to instruct but to fascinate. Even the technical details are full of personality, reminders that seventeenth-century science was as much about wonder as it was about proof.

Why La Fenice chose it

Where else do you get a mermaid skeleton, the cutest armadillo, and a goddess of wisdom scolding someone for believing in magic snake stones - all in one volume? Redi’s Experimenta is science meets cabinet of curiosities: part myth-busting (vipers don’t drink wine, sorry), part world tour (vanilla beans, chinchona bark, exotic spiders), and part delightful theater. It’s seventeenth-century curiosity at its most entertaining, proof that serious science can still be a lot of fun.
Condition Report

Pp. {2} f.e., [8], 312, [32], {4} r.e., [12] folded plates.

Contemporary full stiff vellum binding with manuscript titles on spine; sprinkled edges. With an elegant engraved copperplate frontispiece and title page with woodcut vignette. In addition to the 12 folding plates, there are 2 full-page engravings within the pagination (tot: 14 illustrations). Restoration to the folding plate between pp. 62-63. Some gatherings with light browning, particularly in the index (quire O). Reference: Prandi 40 (“abbastanza rara”) - Nissen, ZBI 3322 - Hirsch-H. IV, 744.

Dimensions (inches): 5 1/4 x 3 x 1
About the author

Francesco Redi (1626, 1697), physician, naturalist, and poet from Arezzo, was one of the most original scientific minds of seventeenth-century Italy. Trained in Pisa and later court physician to the Medici in Florence, he inherited the Galilean tradition and extended the experimental method to the life sciences. Admiring Galileo yet unafraid to contradict authorities like Kircher, Redi consistently affirmed his guiding principle: only experiment deserves belief. For this combination of rigor, style, and intellectual independence, he has been remembered as one of the key scientific voices of the seventeenth century. Referred to as the founder of experimental biology, and as the father of modern parasitology, he was the first person to challenge the theory of spontaneous generation by demonstrating that maggots come from eggs of flies.

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