CHARAS Moyse Nouvelles expériences sur la vipère, ou l’on verra une description exacte de toutes ses parties, la source de son venin, ses divers effets, et les remèdes exquis que les artistes peuvent tirer de la vipère, tant pour la guérison sur ses morsures, que pour celle de plusieurs autres maladies.

Krivatsy, 2367 (missing the 3 folding plates); Wellcome, II, 327 (issue dated 1669).

First edition in second and msot complete issue with the title dated 1670 and Charas’s reply inserted after page 201.

Moyse Charas (1619-1698), a chemist from Uzès who settled in Paris around 1646, was one of the first scientists to contribute – along with Claude Perrault, G.J. Duverney, J. Pequet, and P. de La Hire – articles on comparative anatomy to the recently created French Académie des Sciences.

In this work, the author presents a study of viper anatomy and the source and effects of the venom. He presented the experiments carried out publicly in the King’s garden and defended the thesis that the viper is an antidote to its bite, a thesis opposed to that of another specialist on the subject, the Italian biologist Francesco Redi (1626-1697), with whom he maintained a lengthy controversy. Thanks to his research, Charas contributed to a better understanding of the therapeutic properties of venoms.

The engraved frontispiece shows apparatus for distilling venom, and the 3 fold-out plates show details of viper anatomy.

Pages 203-278 contain the Suite des nouvelles expériences sur la vipère, avec une dissertation sur son venin, pour servir de réplique à une lettre que monsieur François Rédi… a écrite à messieurs Bourdelot & Morus, imprimée à Florence en l’année 1670. Page 278 indicates that this addition was printed on 4 August 1671. Pages 201-218 at the end contain a long alexandrine on the virtues of the viper written in Latin by Moyse Charas.

A few stains or small traces of waterstain at the beginning and towards the end.

A rare copy in contemporary morocco.

Provenance : Fremyn (signature on title).