Title page from 1666 edition Dispensatory of Valerius Cordus. Cordus' original 1546 Pharmacopoiea was first time Europeans collated old & new formulas
It was Valerius Cordus who compiled his ' vulgo vocant Dispensatorium' into what was to be Europe's first real legalised Pharmacopoeia [in the modern sense of the word] in the first half of the 16th century, and many other soon followed. It was published in 1546, after his death. The image shown here is from a 17th c. - - Picture is from 'Aus Pharmazeutischer Vorzeit in Bild und Wort' [1886] by Hermann Peters (1847-1920), of a much earlier illustration of alchemy / pharmacy. -- Like many old books the 1886 text has foxing (yellowing) of its' pages - particularly the page edges - so some desaturation of the Yellow & Orange colour channels has been undertaken in LR to make them look less ancient. Other than spotting out a few ink blobs, rogue wood pulp strands, small dirt marks/scuffs etc., and sometimes correcting a torn and broken engraved line, there has been no digital reconstruction that makes changes to the appearance of the 1886 originals. The patina of the wood pulp gives white areas a slightly grayish appearance which can be 're-tinted' to give an old feel, or converted to pure white is PS. -- Some outer areas may need corrective sharpening since despite being pinned and clamped the old paper does not always wish to flatten completely, and breaking the spine of an old historical printed work is not on the cards. -- The author died in 1920, and as far as I can ascertain the book is out of copyright in Germany, and under UK rights. What other legal jurisdictions do, you will need to check if you are going to use any of this group of images for commercial purposes.
Size: 4636px × 7789px
Location: uk
Photo credit: © Marcus Harrison - ephemera / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1600s, 17th, books, century, chemical, chemistry, cordus, dispensatory, drug, experiment, experimenting, formulations, history, materia, medica, medical, medicine, metaphor, pharmacopoiea, sciences, valerius
