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1J_ipsen
Nov 21, 2007, 2:23 am

Perhaps you guys can name me some more sources where to find information about a book:

I just bought a copy of Philosophia Triumphans by Paulo Sismo on ebay. It was printed by Franciscum van Hoogstraeten in Rotterdam in 1685.

I tried to find more details (value, history of the author, etc..) over the normal sources like abebooks or alibris, but I couldn't find anything.

Any suggestions where to search?

2missylc
Nov 21, 2007, 7:37 am

You might try some of the links on the Internet Public Library page about rare books and collecting. There are various directories and associations that may be helpful. I did several searches on the author's last name and the title and didn't find anything, but I didn't try every single resource here:

http://ipl.org/div/pf/entry/48444

3DaynaRT
Nov 21, 2007, 7:43 am

J,

I spent about an hour searching but only came up with other books printed by van Hoogstraeten (sometimes spelled Hoogstraten). I drew a blank for the author as well.

p.s. I'm telling your wife you went shopping again. ;)

4J_ipsen
Nov 21, 2007, 7:49 am

fleela, in this case this won't be a problem as she caught me "in flagranti" when I tried to sneak this book into our flat.... have to work on that in the future ;)

missylc: thank you for the link. I will have a look if I can find something.

This is really the first time I cannot find ANYTHING about a book I have bought. The book has a librarystamp of the Kapuziner Monastery in Muenster/ Germany though. I will perhaps drop them a mail and ask if they have something in their files.

5J_ipsen
Nov 21, 2007, 7:56 am

I forgot to mention: the complete title is:

Philosophia Triumphans, qux continet generalem praecipue ammoenissimamque mundi historiam. Auctore Paulo Sismo, M.D.

6parrhesiastes
Nov 27, 2007, 9:00 am

I don't know of what help it might be to you, but i've found a few more books by the same author (provided that his name could also be Paulus Sismus, which it should...).

P. Sismi ... in librum Hippocratis de natura humana commentarius. With the text. In quo Carthesius et imprimis C. Bontekoe refutantur, 1689 (copy in British Library)

Korte beschryvingh van 't hof en stad van Romen, 1684 (copy in Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen)

Tractatus aureus de cancro of Gulde tractaetje van de kanker, verhandelende desselfs aerd, kennis en volkome genesing, 1692 (copy in Bibliotheek van de Universiteit van Amsterdam)

Een prince Phaeton, met twee vleugelen vliegende, namelijk onkunde en vermetelheyt, wort door sijn vader Phoebus sachtmoedighlijck herstelt. Ofte Grondigh verhael van de sekerheyt der medicine, 1690 (copy in University of Minneapolis)

Tractatus de diaeta..., 1604? (copy in National Library of Medicine)

There's also a copy of Philosophia Triumphans at Bibliothèque national de France. So... Not anything specific on either personalia or the value of your book, but maybe it's of some use anyway...

7J_ipsen
Editado: Nov 27, 2007, 9:38 am

Thank you parrhesiastes, that was good work. At least I know that I do not have the only copy left of this book.

The value question is not soo important for me, as I do not plan to sell it. It is rather the background information that I'm interested in.

Thank you all for helping in my search :)

8J_ipsen
Editado: Ene 5, 2009, 8:30 am

A short update:

Following the suggestion from the French National Library, I went to the website of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek and used the "Asked a Librarian" Function to get some help regarding the persona Paolo Sismo:

Within a few hours, a very knowledgeable gentleman from Special Collections came back to me with the following:

Paulus Sismus was a physician who studied medicine at the university of Leiden from 1672 onwards. He was probably born in 1646, as the album studiosorum of Leiden says that he was 26 when he started his studies. He worked in Rotterdam and published a number of other books:

-Korte beschryvingh van 't hof en stad van Romen. Rotterdam, M. van Rossum, 1684 (a description of Rome);

-In librum Hippocratis De natura humana commentarius. In quo Carthesius & imprimis Cornelius Bontekoe refutantur. Rotterodami, G. van Wyen, 1689 (a refutation of Descartes);

-Tractatus aureus de cancro of Gulde tractaetje van de kanker. Rotterdam, I. van Ruynen, 1692 (a book on cancer).

There are several other titles by Sisimus; in addition to your book, of which I can only find a copy in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, there are a Tractatus de diaeta (Hagae-Comitis (The Hague), Aegidius a Limburg, 1704), and 'an American library' has a copy of Een prince Phaeton, met twee vleugelen vliegende, namelijk onkunde en vermetelheyt, wort door sijn vader Phoebus sachtmoedighlijck herstelt. Ofte grondigh verhael vande sekerheyt der medicine. Rotterdam, Gerard van Wyen, 1690 (on the security of medicine).

The only article on Paulus Sismus (from which the above is taken) is Anna E.C. Simoni, 'Paulus Sismus, forgotten physician' in Quaerendo XI (1981), 4, p. 325-326.


Much of it is identical with what parrhesiastes found out earlier.

I think that is everything there is about that person. I'm surprised though, that there are so few copies of the book around.

9Steven_VI
Ene 6, 2009, 4:24 pm

I don't know why I didn't see this thread earlier, I could have helped a bit. Well, not much I guess: if Anna Simoni couldn't find much on him, then there's not much to be found at all, she was a real specialist. Incidentally, if you would like to read the article and have a hard time finding it, contact me privately.

There are a lot of 17th and 18th century medical books like this, some of them indeed quite rare, if not really valuable. They usually don't have any images. Once the medical theories presented in such works are replaced by newer, better ones, they loose their use (you wouldn't want your doctor to be using a 1930's manual, would you?) Add to that the diminishing ability to fluently read latin. Many of these books were recycled, often in the toilet...

A remarkable find, this! It's part of my job buy very similar things, and I find two or three a year. Antiquarian catalogues announce this as "no copy located" or "only one copy located" (which can help the price a bit). If you ever decide to sell it, the nice thing to do would be to offer it to my colleague, the knowledgeable gentleman from Special Collections at The Hague first!