[Curiosa] Porta, John Baptista. Natural Magick...In Twenty Books...Wherein are set forth All the Riches and Delights of the Natural Sciences

London: Printed for Thomas Young, and Samuel Speed, 1658. First edition in English. 4to. (viii), 409, (1), (6) pp. Illustrated with an engraved title-page by R(obert). Gaywood, as well as in-text woodcuts. Full contemporary brown mottled calf, morocco spine label, stamped in blind and in gilt, spine dry and worn, extremities worn; red speckled edges; hinges lightly worn; ink stamp of Lord Clifford Ugbrooke Library on front paste-down; closed tear in lower front free endpaper; several quires sprung; dampstaining to endpapers; loss in bottom corner Ss2, affecting recto catchword. ESTC R33476; Norman 1726; Wing P-2982

First edition in English of John Baptista Porta's Magiae naturalis libri viginti, first published in Italian in 1558. This translation follows the expanded edition of 1589. Porta's compilation of science and pseudo-science includes sections on changing metals, counterfeiting precious stones, medical remedies, perfume, cookery, and "burning gasses," or optics.

A handsome copy.