First and only expanded edition, with 1200 rather than the original 900 entries, of a very popular compilation of aphorisms first published in Paris by Fédéric Morel in 1566 under the title Memorabilium ... centuriae novem, containing 900 entries. About a dozen Latin editions followed to 1613 as well as translations into German and apparently French. A 1615 German edition still contained 900 entries and there appear to have been no more until the present, expanded to 1200 medical and other "secrets", including information on astrology, gardening, cosmetics and other subjects, arranged in twelve numbered chapters, each containing 100 numbered prose aphorisms. Like most books of secrets it offers a mixture of science and superstition gathered from a wide variety of ancient and modern sources, many of them named in the aphorisms (such as Walter Ryff, Jerome Brunswick, Agricola, Paracelsus, Albertus Magnus, Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and others, and its medicinal recipes served in turn as sources for other authors internationally.
Mizauld (1510-1578) was a professor of medicine at the University of Paris. He was close friend of Oronce Finé and astrologer and physician to Margaret of Valois, Queen of France. Mizauld thought the poor often fell prey to greedy apothecaries, so he presented them with remedies they could often grow in their own gardens or gather in the wild.
With owners inscription on title-page: "Bibl. Viennensi Scholae Piarum, 1742". The Piarist Church, also known as the Church of Maria Treu, is a church of the Order of the Piarists (Patres Scholarum Piarum) in Vienna. Spine somewhat discoloured, otherwise in good condition. Brunet III, l778; Caillet 17610; Durling, 3178 note & 3187 note; Ferguson II, 197; Thorndike VI, p. 216; Wellcome 4362.