Theriaque d’Andromacus avec une description particuliere des plantes, des animaux & des mineraux ... Nouvelle edition revue et augmentee

Paris: L. d'Houry, 1685. SECOND EDITION. With 2 title pages, the first with a beautiful engraving showing a beaver and vipers. Contemporary calf, spine in compartments with label and gilt decorations. A beautiful copy. Second edition, the original printed in 1668. The first chapters describe theriac, its origin and its methods of elaboration. The main part of the volume describes the natural history of the animal and plant species which make up the composition. This edition is augmented by a Relation of what happened in a new composition of theriac that the author of this book made in public.

Theriac began as mithridatium, a compound created by King Mithridates, who experimented with toxic poisons and snake venoms. By testing possible antidotes on himself and on captured prisoners, he found which ones worked. He then mixed all the successful antidotes into one compound: mithridatium, which contained over 40 ingredients including opium, ginger, saffron, myrrh, castor and cinnamon.

Andromacus the Elder, physician to Nero, experimented and formulated what was ultimately called theriac. It was an alexipharmic, or antidote for a variety of poisons and diseases, as well as a panacea for other remedies. It contained 64 ingredients including viper’s flesh (roasted and well-aged). Galen devoted a whole book theriac, documenting many notable recipes; his patient the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius apparently took it on a regular basis.

OCLC locates no copies of the 1668 edition, and only 6 copies of this 1685 edition in America (2 of which are at Harvard).