Secrets Revealed: Alchemical Books in Early-Modern England

Cooper William , A catalogue of chymical books which have been written originally or translated into English (1673); A catalogue of chymicall books. In three parts (1675), with The continuation or appendix to The second part of the catalogue of chymical books (1688). The 1673 version was issued with Esquire W. C. , The philosophical epitaph, and the 1675 edition was issued with this text and on its own. All cited books were printed in London unless otherwise noted. For the history of how chemistry and alchemy became distinct terms, and the recommendation that the term ‘chymistry’ is used to denote their parallel meanings, see Newman William R. Principe Lawrence M. , “Alchemy vs. chemistry: The etymological origins of a historiographical mistake”, Early science and medicine, iii (1998), 1998–65.

See Appendix 1: A chronological list of titles included in Cooper's Catalogue of chymicall books (1672, 1675, 1688), pp. A1–36 below. For the purposes of this article, I have prepared a database of English alchemical books, drawing on Cooper's Catalogue, the English Short Title Catalogue <http://estc.bl.uk/> (hereafter ESTC), and Linden Stanton (ed.), William Cooper's A catalogue of chymical books, 1673–88: A verified edition (New York, 1987). Figure 1 presents the data for numbers of volumes, not titles, and only for the earliest edition listed in Cooper. There is seldom much variation between his date and the earliest edition recorded in the ESTC. This article focuses on alchemical books, as identified by Cooper. I have identified fifty English alchemical items pre-1689 that are not included in Cooper's Catalogue, plus an additional thirty-seven English works dating from 1689 to 1700 and twenty Latin works printed in London across the entire period. For further databases of alchemical books and manuscripts, see The Alchemy Website, Bibliography: <http://www.levity.com/alchemy/bibliog.html>. Note that alchemical books represent a small fraction of the output of the English presses: Raymond Joad , Pamphlets and pamphleteers in early modern Britain (Cambridge, 2003), chap. 5.

A century ago, John Ferguson observed: “Between the years 1650 and 1675 or 1680 more alchemical books appeared in English than in all the time before or after those dates.” Ferguson , “Some English alchemical books”, Journal of the Alchemical Society, ii (1913–14), 1–16, p. 5. Ferguson's conclusions feature, often secondhand, in the following: Geoghegan D. , “Gabriel Plattes' caveat for alchymists”, Ambix, x (1962), 1962–102, p. 97n; Wilkinson Ronald S. , “The Hartlib Papers and seventeenth-century chemistry”, Ambix, xv (1968), 1968–69, p. 56; Thomas Keith , Religion and the decline of magic (New York, 1971), 227n; Mendelsohn J. Andrew , “Alchemy and politics in England 1649–1665”, Past & present, cxxxv (1992), 1992–78, p. 31. See also Webster Charles , From Paracelsus to Newton: Magic and the making of modern science (Cambridge, 1980), 64–5.

On the constraints to publishing secrets, see Eamon William , Science and the secrets of nature: Books of secrets in medieval and early modern culture (Princeton, 1994), esp. pp. 341ff; Kavey Allison , Books of secrets: Natural philosophy in England, 1550–1600 (Urbana and Chicago, IL, 2007); Long Pamela O. , Openness, secrecy, authorship: Technical arts and the culture of knowledge from Antiquity to the Renaissance (Baltimore, 2001), esp. chaps. 2 and 5. On alchemical manuscripts, see Kassell Lauren , Medicine and magic in Elizabethan London: Simon Forman, astrologer, alchemist, and physician (Oxford, 2005); Kassell , “Reading for the philosophers' stone”, in Frasca-Spada Marin Jardine Nick (eds), Books and the sciences in history (Cambridge, 2000), 132–50; Webster Charles , “Alchemical and Paracelsian medicine”, in Webster (ed.), Health, medicine and mortality in the sixteenth century (Cambridge, 1979), 301–34. Political writings also adopted the language of secrecy and disclosure: Potter Lois , Secret rites and secret writing: Royalist literature, 1641–1660 (Cambridge, 1989).

On alchemy in the 1640s and '50s, see, in chronological order, Rattansi P. M. , “Paracelsus and the Puritan Revolution”, Ambix, xi (1963), 24–32; Hill Christopher , Intellectual origins of the English Revolution (1972 [1965]), 122–3, 148–9; Thomas , Religion and the decline of magic (ref. 3), 227, 270–1; Webster Charles , “English medical reformers of the Puritan Revolution: A background to the ‘Society of Chymical Physicians’”, Ambix, xiv (1967), 1967–41; Hill Christopher , The world turned upside down (London, 1972), chap. 14; Webster Charles , The great instauration: Science, medicine and reform 1626–1660 (London, 1975), esp. pp. 273–300; Mendelsohn , “Alchemy and politics” (ref. 3); Clucas Stephen , “The correspondence of a XVII-century ‘Chymical gentleman’: Sir Cheney Culpeper and the chemical interests of the Hartlib Circle”, Ambix, xl (1993), 1993–70, p. 157; Young John T. , Faith, medical alchemy and natural philosophy: Johann Moriaen, reformed intelligencer, and the Hartlib circle (Aldershot, 1998). Mendelsohn, “Alchemy and politics” (ref. 3), 31, asserts that ” The idea that occult chymical philosophy was primarily or necessarily radical has gone unquestioned, and continues to be reiterated”, but musters limited evidence to support this; cf. Antonio Clericuzio, “From van Helmont to Boyle: A study of the transmission of Helmontian chemical and medical theories in seventeenth-century England”, The British journal for the history of science, xxvi (1993), 1993–34, esp. pp. 319–20. On alchemy and the Royal Society, see Hoppen K. Theodore , “The nature of the early Royal Society”, The British journal for the history of science, ix (1976), 1976–24, 243–73; Schaffer Simon , “Godly men and mechanical philosophers: Souls and spirits in Restoration natural philosophy”, Science in context, i (1987), 1987–85; Golinski Jan , “A noble spectacle: Phosphorus and the public cultures of science in the early Royal Society”, Isis, lxxx (1989), 1989–39; Roos Anna Marie , The salt of the earth: Natural philosophy, medicine, and chymistry in England, 1650–1750 (Leiden, 2007). On the College of Physicians, see also Cook Harold J. , The decline of the old medical regime in Stuart London (Ithaca, NY, 1986); Wear Andrew , Knowledge and practice in English medicine, 1550–1680 (Cambridge, 2000).

On Newton, see esp. Dobbs Betty Jo Teeter , The foundations of Newton's alchemy, or ” The Hunting of the Greene Lyon” (Cambridge, 1975); Newman William R. , Gehennical fire: The lives of George Starkey, an American alchemist in the Scientific Revolution (Cambridge, MA, 1994), chap. 7; and chapters by Newman and Karen Figala in Cohen I. Bernard Smith George E. (eds), The Cambridge companion to Newton (Cambridge, 2002). On Boyle, see Clericuzio Antonio , “Robert Boyle and the English Helmontians”, in Alchemy revisited, ed. by von Martels Z. R. W. M. (Leiden, 1990), 192–9; Clericuzio , “Carneades and the chemists: A study of ‘The sceptical chymist’ and its impact on seventeenth-century chemistry”, in Hunter Michael (ed.), Robert Boyle reconsidered (Cambridge, 1994), 79–90; Hunter Michael , “Alchemy, magic and moralism in the thought of Robert Boyle”, The British journal for the history of science, xxiii (1990), 1990–410; Newman William R. Principe Lawrence M. , Alchemy tried in the fire: Starkey, Boyle, and the fate of Helmontian chymistry (Chicago, 2002); Principe , The aspiring adept: Robert Boyle and his alchemical quest (Princeton, 1998).

Newman Principe , Alchemy tried in the fire (ref. 6).

Eamon , Science and the secrets of nature (ref. 4), 299, 319; Golinski , “Noble spectacle” (ref. 5); Golinski Jan , “The secret life of an alchemist”, in Fauvel J. Flood R. Shortland M. Wilson R. (eds), Let Newton be!: A new perspective on his life and works (Oxford, 1988), 147–68, esp. pp. 154–5; Hoppen , “Nature of the early Royal Society” (ref. 5); Johns Adrian , The nature of the book: Print and knowledge in the making (Chicago, 1998), 460–73 passim, 511; Long , Openness, secrecy, authorship (ref. 4), chap. 5; Lynch William T. , Solomon's child: Method in the early Royal Society of London (Stanford, CA, 2001), chap. 5; Roos , Salt of the earth (ref. 5), esp. chaps. 3 and 4; Shapin Steven , A social history of truth: Civility and science in seventeenth century England (Chicago, 1994), 104; Shapin Schaffer Simon , Leviathan and the air-pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the experimental life (Princeton, 1985), 39, 57, 335–6; Stewart Larry , The rise of public science: Rhetoric, technology, and natural philosophy in Newtonian Britain, 1660–1750 (Cambridge, 1992), esp. chap. 10; Webster , From Paracelsus to Newton (ref. 3), 59.

An exception is Dobbs's brief survey of alchemical publishing, as evidenced through the libraries of Isaac Newton and John Winthrop Jr: Foundations of Newton's alchemy (ref. 6), 49–53.

See especially, Newman Principe , Alchemy tried in the fire (ref. 6); Starkey George , Alchemical laboratory notebooks and correspondence, ed. by Newman William R. Principe Lawrence M. (Chicago, 2004); Newman William R. , Atoms and alchemy: Chymistry and the experimental origins of the Scientific Revolution (Chicago, 2006). Other major approaches to the subject include studies establishing the plurality of alchemical traditions (e.g. work by Leah deVun, Peter Grund, Didier Khan, Bruce Moran, Michela Pereira, Jennifer Rampling and Jole Shackelford); studies that focus on eschatological knowledge (e.g. work by Stephen Clucas, Hereward Tilton and Peter Forshaw); and studies of alchemy, credibility and artisanal knowledge (e.g. work by Keller Vera Nummedal Tara Smith Pamela ). All of these approaches inform Bruce Moran's textbook, Distilling knowledge: Alchemy, chemistry, and the Scientific Revolution (Cambridge, MA, 2005).

For the continuing compulsion to collect alchemical books, see Ferguson John , Bibliotheca chemica: A catalogue of the alchemical, chemical and pharmaceutical books (2 vols, Glasgow, 1906); Thorndike Lynn , “Alchemy during the first half of the sixteenth century”, Ambix, ii (1938), 1938–37; Catalogue of the Ferguson Collection of Books (Glasgow, 1943); Duveen Dennis , Bibliotheca alchemica et chemica: An annotated catalogue of printed books on alchemy, chemistry and cognate subjects (London, 1949); Hirsch Rudolf , “The invention of printing and the diffusion of alchemical and chemical knowledge”, Chymia, iii (1950), 1950–41; Pritchard Alan , Alchemy: A bibliography of English-language writings (London, 1980). A second edition of Pritchard's work has been prepared in an on-line format: <http://www.alchemy-bibliography.co.uk/>; The Alchemy Website, Bibliography: <http://www.levity.com/alchemy/bibliog.html>.

Ashmole Elias (ed.), Theatrum chemicum Britannicum (1652), Prolegomena.

Dear Peter , “Totius in verba: Rhetoric and authority in the early Royal Society”, Isis, lxxvi (1985), 144–61; Johns , Nature of the book (ref. 8); Nummedal Tara Findlen Paula , “Words of nature: Scientific books in the seventeenth century”, in Hunter Andrew (ed.), Thornton and Tully's scientific books, libraries, and collectors: A study of bibliography and the book trade in relation to the history of science, 4th edn, revised (Aldershot, 2000), 164–215; Shapin Schaffer , Leviathan and the air-pump (ref. 8).

Cooper William , Catalogue (1673), “Bookseller to the Reader”, sig. [R4v].

Secrets reveal'd lists Cooper's address as “Little St Bartholomews, near Little Britain”, but his subsequent books were sold from the Pelican in Little Britain. Perhaps this was the same as the shop at the sign of the ‘golden pelican’ where John Shirley (or Sherley) sold books from at least 1644 to 1666: Plomer Henry , A dictionary of the booksellers and printers who were at work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641–1667 (Bibliographical Society, London, 1907), 163.

Linden Stanton , “William Cooper”, Oxford dictionary of national biography <http://www.oxforddnb.com/> (hereafter ODNB); Linden (ed.)., Cooper's Catalogue (ref. 2), Introduction. Plomer's entry on Cooper is largely incorrect: Plomer , Dictionary of the booksellers and printers (ref. 15), 80–1. In 1684 Cooper was admitted to the Court of Assistants of the Stationers' Company: McKenzie D. F. Bell Maureen , A chronology and calendar of documents relating to the London book trade, 1641–1700 (3 vols, Oxford, 2005), ii, 406–7, 412.

The count of books published by Cooper includes those which were funded by the author or another source, but for which Cooper, either alone or with others, was listed as the bookseller. These items are accordingly noted in Appendix 2, below. Between 1676 and 1688 Cooper conducted at least twenty-two book sales, advertising them in advance with printed catalogues. On Cooper's activities as an auctioneer, see Linden (ed.), Cooper's Catalogue (ref. 2), pp. xvi–xxi; Lawler John , Book auctions in England in the seventeenth century (1667–1700) (London, 1898), chap. 1. John Dunton briefly mentions Cooper along with other early auctioneers: The life and errors of John Dunton (New York and London, 1974), 316. See also Raven James , The business of books: Booksellers and the English book trade 1450–1850 (London and New Haven, 2007), 106–7.

British Library, MS Sloane 743, attributed to Cooper and dated 1676 according to the BL handwritten catalogue; Sloane 696, identified by me as a sister volume to Sloane 743, and dated to after 1685 according to internal evidence. A note to “see more of these in my Chymicall Catalogue in parts. Lond. 1675, 8°” following a long entry on Thomas Vaughan, confirms that this is Cooper's (f. 35v).

Cooper , Catalogue (1675), sig. [*3v–*4]. See also the advertisements that Cooper printed with Simpson William , Zymologia physica, or, a brief philosophical discourse of fermentation, from a new hypothesis of acidum and sulphur…. With an additional discourse of the sulfur-bath at Knarsbrough (1675). Rostenberg Leona , The library of Robert Hooke: The scientific book trade of Restoration England (Santa Monica, 1986), 48, citing Hooke Robert , Diary 1672–80, ed. by Robinson H. W. Adams W. (London, 1935), 419. These were Willebrord Snellius's Cœli & siderum in eo errantium observationes Hassiacœ (Leiden, 1618) and one of Christoph Scheiner's works on optics.

Introitus apertus ad occulsum Regis palatium was written between spring 1651 and 1654, and circulated in manuscript until it was printed in Amsterdam in 1667, two years after Starkey's death. The early years of Cooper's work as a publisher are somewhat muddled. On 1 January 1667 he registered William Rowland's translation of a work by John Schroder under the title “A chymical dispensative”, but Richard [Robert?] Clavell would publish this work: The compleat chymical dispensatory, in five books (1669). For Cooper's entries in the Stationers' Register, see A transcript of the registers of The Worshipful Company of Stationers from 1640–1708, ed. by Eyre G. E. Briscoe (3 vols, 1913–14), ii, 383, 390, 391, 423, 474; iii, 1, 79, 191, 192, 303, 326.

Cooper , Catalogue, sig. *2.

Transcript of the registers of the Worshipful Company of Stationers (ref. 20), iii, 192; also cited in Linden (ed.), Cooper's Catalogue (ref. 2), p. xxiii. This volume is mistakenly listed under the date 30 August 1683, instead of 1673.

In the face of this evidence, Linden maintains that they are the same man and that Cooper listed Chamberlayne in the Stationers' Register as an alter ego: Linden , Cooper's Catalogue (ref. 2), Introduction. Cf. Josten C. H. (ed.), Elias Ashmole, autobiographical and historical notes, correspondence, and other sources (5 vols, Oxford, 1966), iii, 1289.

Jagger Nicholas , “William Chamberlayne”, ODNB. Esquire W. C. , however, dedicates Secrets reveal'd to John Lucas, Baron of Shenfield in Essex, claiming that though they did not know each other, they had been “neighbours in youthful years” (sig. A4r). Dorset and Essex are on opposite sides of London. Lucas (1606–71) was Margaret Cavendish's brother and an avid Royalist: Walter John , “John Lucas”, ODNB.

This designation also leaves open the possibility that Cooper constructed Chamberlayne as an alter ego.

Esquire W. C. , Philosophical epitaph, sig. [F7].

Cooper registered a translation of John Frederick Helvetius's Golden calf, originally printed in Latin at the Hague in 1666, in September 1668: Transcript of the registers of the Worshipful Company of Stationers, ii, 391. The dedication to Ashmole is dated 16 July 1668; to the reader, 10 January 1670; and to Boyle, 1 April 1671.

Esquire W. C. , Philosophical epitaph, sig. [A4v]. On 26 November 1672 Ashmole received a copy of The philosophical epitaph, noting this date in the flyleaf of the book (now Bodleian Library, Ashmole 1348): Josten (ed.), Ashmole (ref. 24), iii, 1281, 1289.

Esquire W. C. , Philosophical epitaph, sigs A2ff. On 5 August 1665 William Chamberlayne wrote to Boyle seeking advice for one of his patients about the virtues of the mineral waters at Shaftsbury: The correspondence of Robert Boyle, ed. by Hunter Michael Clericuzio Antonio Principe Lawrence M. (London, 2001), ii, 501–2.

The golden calf, which the world adores, and desires (1670), published by John Starkey. W. C. Esquire explains his original plan to issue his translation on its own and his subsequent decision to abbreviate, augment, and print it with three other works in 1673: Philosophical epitaph, sig. A2r—v.

Esquire W. C. , Philosophical epitaph, sig. [C6].

Cooper , Catalogue (1673), sig. [*3v].

Collectanea chymica, [ed. by Cooper William ], sigs a2r—v.

On Jones, see below.

On Hooke's knowledge of and scepticism towards alchemy, see Hunter Michael , “Hooke the natural philosopher”, in Bennett Jim Cooper Michael Hunter Michael Jardine Lisa (eds), London's Leonardo: The life and work of Robert Hooke (Oxford, 2003), 105–62, esp. p. 161, n. 104. Cooper printed Simpson's Zymologia physica and A discourse of the sulphur-bath at Knarsbrough. On Simpson, see Clericuzio , “From van Helmont to Boyle” (ref. 5), 305, 325ff; Coley Noel , “‘Cures without care’: ‘Chymical physicians’ and mineral waters in seventeenth-century English medicine”, Medical history, xxiii (1979), 1979–214; Poynter F. N. L. , “A seventeenth-century medical controversy: Robert Witty versus William Simpson”, in Underwood E. A. (ed.), Science, medicine and history (Oxford, 1953), 72–81; Roos , Salt of the earth (ref. 5), chap. 4. Simpson is not included in the ODNB and his works merit more sustained attention.

The correspondence of Henry Oldenburg, ed. by Hall A. Rupert Hall Marie Boas , ix (Madison, 1973), letter no. 2132, cited in Rostenberg , Library of Robert Hooke (ref. 19), 44; Hooke , Diary (ref. 19), 119, cited in Rostenberg , Library of Robert Hooke (ref. 19), 42. It is possible that Cooper associated with one John Allin, whose alchemical correspondence is sealed with a pelican stamp resembling Cooper's printer's mark. Donna Bilak is studying Allin's correspondence and has generously shared this information with me.

The works of the highly experienced and famous chymist, Glauber John Rudolph , transl. and ed. by Packe Christopher (1689). Cooper and Newman also sold the work that Packe used to promote this project, [Franciscus Mercurius van Helmont], One hundred and fifty three chymical aphorisms, transl. by Packe Christopher (1688).

For bibliographical references see Appendix 1, below. Cooper was not one of the publishers who had formal links with the Royal Society: Rivington Charles A. , “Early printers to the Royal Society, 1663–1708”, Notes and records of the Royal Society, xxxix (1984), 187–201.

Newman's Gehennical fire (ref. 6) is now the standard work on Starkey and it includes a “Bibliography of Starkey's writings”. See also Newman Principe , Alchemy tried in the fire (ref. 6).

Newman , Gehennical fire (ref. 6), 62–78; Newman , “George Starkey and the selling secrets”, in Greengrass Mark Leslie Michael Raylor Timothy (eds), Samuel Hartlib and universal reformation: Studies in intellectual communication (Cambridge, 1995), 193–210; Newman Principe , Alchemy tried in the fire (ref. 6), 179–86.

[ Philalethes Eirenaeus ], “Sir George Ripley's Epistle to King Edward Unfolded”, in Hartlib (ed.), Chymical, medicinal, and chyrurgical addresses (1655), 20.

Newman Principe , Alchemy tried in the fire (ref. 6), 265–7, 271–2. On Starkey's early years in England, see Newman , Gehennical fire (ref. 6), chap. 2.

There are striking, if circumstantial, parallels between Boyle's argument about medicinal secrets in An Invitation to a free and generous communication of secrets and receits in physick and his arguments about chymical secrets in an undated, manuscript list of ” The excuses of Philaletha for concealing the great Arcanum”. Together these documents potentially suggest the extent to which Boyle's encounters with Starkey and his mythical master shaped his attitude to secrecy and disclosure. For ” The excuses of Philaletha”, see Royal Society, BP 19, 187v–188r, reproduced as Appendix IV in Newman , Gehennical fire (ref. 6), 254–5. On this list, see Hunter , “Alchemy, magic, and moralism” (ref. 6), 407; Newman , Gehennical fire (ref. 6), 62. Boyle wrote Invitation to free communication c. 1647–49, before meeting Starkey, and it was printed in Hartlib Samuel (ed.), Chymical, medicinal, and chyrurgical addresses (1655). This was Boyle's first printed work, but it went largely unnoticed until 1950. Thereafter it was read as a typical statement of Baconian concerns about the dissemination of useful information and as a precursor to Boyle's more developed attitude towards secrecy. See Hunter Michael Davis Edward B. (eds), The works of Robert Boyle (14 vols, London, 1999), i, pp. cix–cxiv. This contains a judicious reading of the dating of this work by Rowbottom M. E. (“The earliest published writing of Robert Boyle', Annals of science, vi (1950), 1950–89) and of a manuscript version by Maddison R. E. W. (“The earliest published writing of Robert Boyle”, Annals of science, xvii (1961), 1961–73). More recently, scholars have stressed that the Invitation to free communication should be read as one of a series of moral epistolary fictions that Boyle wrote in the 1640s, and that there is a disjuncture between his position on alchemical secrecy here and in his later writings: Clericuzio Antonio , “Carneades and the chemists” (ref. 6), 82–3; Hunter , “Alchemy, magic and moralism” (ref. 6), 399, 406; Hunter Michael , “The reluctant philanthropist: Robert Boyle and the ‘Communication of secrets and receits in physick’”, in Grell Ole Cunningham Andrew (eds), Religio medici: Religion and medicine in seventeenth century England (Aldershot, 1996), 247–71, esp. p. 247; Newman , Gehennical fire (ref. 6), 62–78 passim; Principe , Aspiring adept (ref. 6), 50, 148–9; Principe , “Robert Boyle's alchemical secrecy: Codes, ciphers, and concealments”, Ambix, xxxix (1992), 1992–74. See also Boyle , Usefulness of natural philosophy (1663), 169–70, cited in Rowbottom, “Earliest published writing of Robert Boyle” (ref. 43), 386. The Invitation to free communication is related to a larger work, ” of publicke-spiritednesse”, that Boyle was working on in 1649–50: Hunter Davis (eds), Works of Boyle (ref. 43), i, pp. cxiii–cxii. In Boyle's later Sceptical chymist (1661), he rebukes chymists for writing in enigmatic riddles, while allowing for strictures on the open display of secrets: Boyle Robert , Sceptical chymist (1661) in Hunter Davis (eds), Works of Boyle (ref. 43), ii, 291, 293, 314, 319–20, 373–4. See also Principe , Aspiring adept (ref. 6), chap. 2.

On the notion of a “Philalethes-school”, see Figala Karin , “Zwei Londoner Alchemisten um 1700: Sir Isaac Newton und Cleidophorus Mystagogus”, Physis, xviii (1976), 245–73; Newman , Gehennical fire (ref. 6), 229, 252–3.

Philalethes Eirenaeus , Secrets reveal'd, sig. [a8v]. For bibliographical details of the Introitus, see ref. 24 above and Newman , Gehennical fire (ref. 6), 263–7. Cooper's edition is no. 17H. On the conventions for reading alchemical texts, see Kassell , “Reading for the philosophers' stone” (ref. 4) and Medicine and magic in Elizabethan London (ref. 4), esp. chaps. 8 and 9.

Philalethes Eirenaeus , Secrets reveal'd, sigs A5r—v.

Esquire W. C. , Philosophical epitaph, Dedication to Ashmole, [p. 3]. On Helvetius, see Newman , Gehennical fire (ref. 6), 8–9.

Newman , Gehennical fire (ref. 6), 117ff, 234. For the complex bibliographical details of this work see also p. 268, no. 22. It does not contain consecutive pagination or signatures.

Cooper W. (ed.), Ripley reviv'd (1678), “An advertisement”, following sig. [*6].

Ripley reviv'd, following “An exposition upon Sir George Ripley's vision”.

Ripley reviv'd, following “An exposition upon Sir George Ripley's Epistle to King Edward IV”, 44–8, original italics.

Ripley reviv'd, following “An exposition upon Sir George Ripley's Epistle to King Edward IV”, [45–6]. On The marrow of alchemy (1654), see Newman , Gehennical fire (ref. 6), 262, no. 15.

Ripley reviv'd, following “An exposition upon Sir George Ripley's Epistle to King Edward IV”, [46]–8; Newman , Gehennical fire (ref. 6), 254. See also Cooper's list of works by Philalethes at the end of Opus tripartitum de philosophorum arcanis (1678).

Biographical details for most of these men can be found in the ODNB. Cooper, it has sometimes been conjectured, supplied Newton with alchemical books: Munby A. N. L. , “The Keynes Collection of the works of Sir Isaac Newton at King's College, Cambridge”, Notes and records of the Royal Society, x (1952), 40–50, p. 42; cf. Dobbs , Foundations of Newton's alchemy (ref. 6), 22.

On the second-hand market in books and manuscripts, see Mandelbrote Giles , “Scientific books and their owners: A survey to c. 1720”, in Thornton and Tully (ref. 13), 333–91; Morris Owen , The ‘Chymick bookes’ of Sir Owen Wynne of Gwydir, an annotated catalogue (Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, clxxviii; Tempe, AZ, 1997); Sherman William H. , Used books: Marking readers in Renaissance England (Philadelphia, PA, 2008); Webster , “Alchemical and Paracelsian medicine” (ref. 4).

Opus tripartitum de philosophorum arcanis (ref. 53). Newman , Gehennical fire (ref. 6), 268, no. 19. The first of these works was spuriously attributed to Philalethes. For Philalethean manuscripts that Cooper was asked to value, see McKenzie Bell , Chronology and calendar (ref. 16), ii, 218.

Collectanea chymica (ref. 33), sigs a2r—v.

Philalethes Eirenaeus , “The secret of the immortal liquor called alkahest”, in Collectanea chymica (ref. 33), 2–23. A work with a similar title was attributed to Starkey (Liquor alchahest, or a discourse of the immortal dissolvent of Paracelsus & Helmont; Newman , Gehennical fire (ref. 6), 261, no. 14) but these seem to be different texts. This text is not listed in Newman. For Cooper's account of the provenance of this text, see sig. a2v; for details about the provenance of the text by van Helmont also included in this volume, see pp. 89 [68]–69.

Ripley reviv'd, “Bookseller to the reader”, following “An exposition upon the first six gates of Sir George Ripley's Compound of Alchymie”.

Ripley reviv'd, “Author's Preface”, sigs *3v–*5.

Ripley reviv'd, sig. [*6].

Ripley reviv'd, sig. [*5r—v].

Most were quartos and octavos printed in London.

Cooper , Catalogue (1675), sigs *2r—v.

Cooper , Catalogue (1675), sigs *2v–3.

Cooper , Catalogue (1675), sig E2. Linden's edition does not include this section.

The major English alchemical anthologies were Ashmole E. , (ed.), Theatrum chemicum Britannicum (1652); Cooper W. (ed.)., Collectanea chymica (1684); Cooper (ed.)., Ripley reviv'd (ref. 49); Hartlib S. (ed.)., Chymical, medicinal and chyrurgical addresses (1655); Houpreght J. F. (ed.)., Aurifontina chymica (1680). Cooper published the Houpreght volume, and nothing is known about its editor except that he dedicated the work to Charles II. Thirty other volumes contained between two and five works. On Latin alchemical collections, see Dobbs , Foundations of Newton's alchemy (ref. 6), 49–51.

Blair Ann , “Annotating and indexing in natural philosophy”, in Spada Frasca Jardine (eds), Books and the sciences in history (ref. 5), 69–89; Blair , “Reading strategies for coping with information overload ca. 1550–1700”, Journal of the history of ideas, lxiv (2003), 11–28.

William Jaggard had previously planned to compile regular lists of English printed books: A catalogue of such English bookes, as lately haue bene, and now are in printing for publication (1618). Cooper did not mention Jaggard's list or his neighbour and fellow publisher Robert Clavell's A catalogue of all the books printed in England since the dreadful fire of London, in 1666 (1673, 1675, 1680, 1696).

London W. , Catalog of the most vendible books in England (1658), sig. G3v.

For limited information about London's life, see Plomer , Dictionary of booksellers and printers (ref. 15), 119–20; Smolenaars Marja , “William London”, ODNB.

London, Catalog of the most vendible books in England (ref. 70), sig. B4.

London, Catalog of the most vendible books in England (ref. 70), sigs C4v, D4r—v: Citing Francis Bacon , The proficience and advancement of learning (1605).

London, Catalog of the most vendible books in England (ref. 70), sigs B2r—v, E3. 75. London, Catalog of the most vendible books in England (ref. 70), sigs E3, I2r—v.

London, Catalog of the most vendible books in England (ref. 70), sig. C1v.

While many Restoration booksellers included proprietary medicines amongst their wares, there is no evidence that Cooper did so. See Alden John , “Pills and publishing: Some notes on the English book trade, 1660–1715”, The library, vii (1952), 21–30; Isaac Peter , “Pills and print”, in Myers Robin Harris Michael (eds), Medicine, mortality and the book trade (Folkstone, 1998), 25–48.

Cooper W. , Catalogue (1673), “Bookseller to the Reader”, sig. [R4v].

Cooper Catalogue , “Bookseller to the Reader”, sig. [R4v].

Cooper , Catalogue, sigs E2 (pertain), [*3] (depend).

Cooper , Catalogue, sig. [*3v].

Sloane 2575, f. 35. For Jones's book lists see Sloane 2574 (manuscripts), 2575 (mostly sixteenth-century printed books), 2576 (mostly seventeenth-century printed books). I am grateful to William Newman for encouraging me to look at Jones's papers. Jones published seven books from 1668 to 1685, working first out of the Golden Lion, then from c. 1679 the White Horse. His lists suggest that he was running his shop and studying alchemy until 1705. For the identification of him as the bookseller by this name who died c. 1723, see Munby A. L. Coral Lenore , British book sale catalogues, 1676–1800 (Mansall, 1977), cited in Newman , Gehennical fire (ref. 6), 252. In 1678 Jones informed the Stationers' Company about the printing of seditious works in Southwark: McKenzie Bell , Chronology and calendar (ref. 16), ii, 191, 192.

Cooper , Catalogue (1673), “Bookseller to the Reader”, sig. R3v. On authorship, see Chartier Roger , “Foucault's chiasmus: Authorship between science and literature in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries”, in Biagioli Mario Galison Peter (eds), Scientific authorship: Credit and intellectual property in science (New York and London, 2003), 13–31; Long , Openness, secrecy, authorship (ref. 4).

Cooper , Catalogue, sig. D*11r—v; see also Q1v.

Relatively few (sixteen) astronomical and astrological books are included, perhaps because they relate to the celestial realms, and almost certainly because their huge numbers would have overwhelmed the list.

These are listed in Linden (ed.), Cooper's Catalogue (ref. 2), 16–22.

Plattes , “Caveat for alchymists”, in Hartlib (ed.), Chymical, medicinal, and chyrurgical addresses (ref. 67), 55. On commonplace books in general, see Moss Ann , Printed common-place books and the structuring of Renaissance thought (Oxford, 1996), and Sherman William H. , John Dee: The politics of reading and writing in the Renaissance (Amherst, MA, 1995), chap. 3.

Clucas , “Correspondence of a XVII-century ‘Chymical Gentleman’” (ref. 5), 158–9. On indexes, see ref. 68 above.

King's College, Cambridge, MS Keynes 30/1–5. Work towards a critical edition of these texts is included in the Newton Project, <http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/mss/intro/ALCH00200>.

Jones Richard , Cooper's neighbouring bookseller with an interest in alchemy, similarly compiled an index to the Philosophical transactions. This is brief and restricted to mines and mineral baths. It seems to have been compiled without reference to Cooper's Index. Its entries are sparse through 1683, then fuller through 1697, ending in 1701: Sloane 2577A, ff. 3–12.

see esp. Golinski , “Noble Spectacle” (ref. 5) and Roos , Salt of the earth (ref. 5), chaps. 3 and 4.

See ref. 5 above. see also Taylor Alan , “An episode with may-dew”, History of science, xxxii (1994), 163–84; Yeo Richard , “Classifying the sciences”, in Porter Roy (ed.), Cambridge history of science, iv: Eighteenth-century science (Cambridge, 2003), 241–66.

Studies of the medical aspects of Helmontianism are an exception, e.g. Clericuzio , “From van Helmont to Boyle” (ref. 5); Debus Allen G. , The chymical philosophy: Paracelsian science and medicine in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (2 vols, New York, 1977); Porto Paulo , “‘Summa atque felicissimus slaium’: The medical relevance of the Liquor alchahest”, Bulletin of the history of medicine, lxxvi (2002), 2002–29.

Birch Thomas , The history of the Royal Society of London for improving of natural knowledge (4 vols, 1756–57), i, 406, 439; ii, 311; Hunter Michael , Establishing the new science: The experience of the early Royal Society (Woodbridge, 1989), chap. 3. Cf. Hoppen , “Nature of the early Royal Society” (ref. 5), 255.

Sprat Thomas , The history of the Royal Society of London (1667), 37, cited in Cook , Decline of the old medical regime (ref. 5), 170.

Boyle , Sceptical chymist , in Hunter Davis (eds), Works of Boyle (ref. 43), e.g. ii, 309, 319–20, 339.

Hunter Michael , “Boyle versus the Galenists: A suppressed critique of seventeenth-century medical practice and its significance”, Medical history, xli (1997), 322–61; Hunter , “Reluctant philanthropist” (ref. 43).

Cook , Decline of the old medical regime (ref. 5); Pelling Margaret , Medical conflicts in early modern London: Patronage, physicians, and irregular practitioners, 1550–1640 (Oxford, 2003).

Debus Allen G. , The English Paracelsians (London, 1965), 142–5; Webster , “Alchemical and Paracelsian medicine” (ref. 4).

See for instance the exchanges sparked by Francis Anthony's Medicinae chymicœ, et veri potabilis auri assertio (1610), John Evans's The universall medicine: Or, the vertues of the antimoniall cup (1634), and Noah Biggs's The vanity of the craft of physick, or, a new dispensatory (1651).

Webster Charles , “The College of Physicians: ‘Solomon's House’ in Commonwealth England”, Bulletin of the history of medicine, xli (1967), 393–412.

Webster , Great instauration (ref. 5), 312; Cook , Decline of the old medical regime (ref. 5), 112.

Nedham Marchamont , Medela ignorantiae: Or a just and plain vindication of Hippocrates and Galen…. (1665).

Cook , Decline of the old medical regime (ref. 5), chap. 4; Cook , “The Society of Chemical Physicians, the new philosophy, and the Restoration Court”, Bulletin of the history of medicine, lxi (1987), 61–77; Rattansi P. M. , “The Helmontian-Galenist controversy in Restoration England”, Ambix, xii (1964), 1964–23; Thomas Henry , “The Society of Chymical Physicians: An echo of the Great Plague of London, 1665”, in Underwood (ed.), Science, medicine and history (ref. 36), 56–71; Webster , “English medical reformers of the Puritan Revolution” (ref. 5). On Helmontian medicine in general, see esp. Clericuzio , “From van Helmont to Boyle” (ref. 5); Wear , Knowledge and practice (ref. 5), chap. 8. see also Hunter Michael , “Boyle versus the Galenists” (ref. 97).

Goodall Charles , The College of Physicians vindicated (1676), 116–56.

Cook , Decline of the old medical regime (ref. 5), chap. 4, esp. pp. 154, 163–4, 178–9.

As with Figure 1, I have counted the earliest edition of a work listed by Cooper. The distribution of multiple editions amplifies these trends. Sixty-seven works together resulted in 115 additional editions, distributed as follows: 1560s, 3; 1570s, 1; 1580s, 2; 1590s, 3; 1600s, 3; 1610s, 1; 1620s, 2; 1630s, 5; 1640s, 2; 1650s, 19; 1660s, 21; 1670s, 27; 1680s, 26.

Linden also classifies the books in Cooper's list: Linden (ed.), Cooper's Catalogue (ref. 2), Index.

The works noted here and in the following paragraphs are listed by year in Appendix 1, below.

Twenty-two were first printed in the 1650s, fifteen in the 1660s, fourteen in the 1670s and twelve in the 1680s; that is, 63 out of a total of 318 books printed 1650–88.