Secreta secretorum Aristotelis; Medical secrets plus a largely imaginary Medieval European view of I 1528

Alessandro Achillini

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• A proposito di opere d'arte
  Secreta secretorum Aristotelis.
  Including:
  ARISTOTLE [pseudo]. Maximi philosophi ... de signis aquarum: & tempestatum.
  ARISTOTLE [pseudo]. Maximi philosophurum ... de mineralibus.
  ALEXANDER OF APHRODISIAS. De intellectu.
  AVERROES. De beatitudine anime.
  ACHILLINI, Alexander. De universalibus.
  ALEXANDER THE GREAT [pseudo]. De mirabilibus Indie.
  (Colophon: Lyon, Antoine Blanchard, 23 March) 1528. Small 8vo (15 x 10.5 cm). With a title-page with a decorated woodcut border, woodcut printer's device on last page, 6 woodcut initials. Contemporary blind-tooled sheepskin(?) parchment over wooden boards, in a panel design, brass catch-plates and anchor-plates (straps and clasps lost).
  
  Collection of seven treatises on medicine and philosophy, edited by Alessandro Achillini (1463-1512). Four of these are pseudo-Aristotelian works that had been well known since the 13th century or earlier. The Secreta secretorum is here present in the translation of Philip of Tripoli; the De signis aquarum, ventorum et tempestatum on weather signs, was translated in the 13th century by Bartholomew of Messina; the third pseudo-Aristotle is De mineralibus on gems; the fourth, Alexandri Macedonis ad Aristotelem de mirabilibus Indie, is a fictitious letter by Alexander the Great to his teacher Aristotle, describing the wonders of India and the East. Three other similar "Indian tractates" are known, all of them connected with the romance of Alexander the Great at various points in history.
  The three remaining treatises in the present work consist of a work by Alexander of Aphrodisias on the intellect, another by Averroes on the beauty of the soul, and a work by Achillini himself on universals.
  
  Very good copy, with very slight browning and a few marginal spots, lacking the final blank. Binding lacking straps and clasps, and with the (restored?) spine damaged.
  
  Baudrier V, p. 104; Stillwell 578; USTC 155810 (8 copies); cf. Lach II, book 2, p. 94 ; Thorndike V, pp. 47-48.
• A proposito di opere artista
  Alessandro Achillini (1463 o 1461, Bologna – 1512, Bologna) fu un celebre docente di medicina e filosofia a Bologna e Padova. Ha vissuto a Bologna la maggior parte della sua vita. Fu chiamato "il secondo Aristotele". Era di natura sincera e possedeva un carattere dinamico. Era un formidabile oratore. Le sue opere filosofiche furono pubblicate in un volume (folio), nel 1508, a Venezia, e ristampate nel 1545, 1551 e 1568 (edizioni ampliate). Nel 1506 dovette lasciare Bologna per motivi politici, perché partigiano della famiglia Bentivoglio. Partì per Padova, dove divenne insegnante di filosofia dal 1506 -1508). Achillini fu anche un illustre anatomista, scrisse tra gli altri De humani corporis anatomia (L'anatomia del corpo umano), Venezia, 1516-1524. Fu sepolto nel 1512 a Bologna nella chiesa di San Martino.