Ruiz Zapata, Francisco
First edition, exceedingly rare and interesting work about the pharmacological and somewhat alchemical use of a pink sugar made with rose extract during the 17th century Spain (a curiously popular product at the time), which gained the author the expulsion from the Colegio de Medicos y Cirujanos. Exceptionally rare, according to OCLC only one copy is found, at the BNE in Spain, no copies in the United States.
Further images
4to, (201 x 154 mm.) 4 ff. inc. title page with large engraving, 45 p., 1 ll. with woodcut device of the Jesuit order, 40 p. Contemporary limp vellum, original ties. Very light spotting.
Ruiz Zapata was a physician at the University of Zaragoza of whom little is known aside from this work and that he distributed his sugar under the name azucar rosado solutivo.
The Jurors of the imperial city of Zaragoza, in a declaration and sentence dated September 12, 1625, decree that “the Apothecaries of said City shall have in their shops the preparation of Solutive Rose Sugar; so that the Physicians may prescribe it…,” (“los Boticarios de dicha Ciudad tengan en sus Boticas la composicion del Azucar Rosado solutivo; para que los Medicos la puedan ordenar,…”), given that it was considered “very necessary for the preservation and restoration of human life, and that, because the Apothecaries do not have it prepared in their shops (as they ought to), it cannot be administered to the sick who require it:…” (muy necesaria para la conservacion, y restauracion de la vida humana, y que por no tenerla los Boticarios preparada en las Boticas (como seria la tuviesen) no se puede aplicar a los enfermos, que necesitan de Ella:…”).
On p.5, the book provides the recipe with the list of ingredients: Rhabarbari, Mannae, Senae, etc.
“Francisco Ruiz Zapata, doctor en medicina por la Universidad de Zaragoza, distribuyó su propia panacea bajo el nombre de azúcar rosado solutivo, aunque el Colegio de Médicos y Cirujanos le abrió expediente en mayo de 1624 y dictaminó tanto su expulsión como la reprobación del Corte que prologaron varios tratados donde se incluyeron todos los detalles sobre la confección y aplicación de su remedio así como la descripción del proceso jurídico del que salió vencedor” Vendedores de Panaceas Alquímicas entre los Siglos XVI y XVII por José Rodríguez Guerrero.
In the section of the Discurso del Azucarillo Rosado Solutivo, it is noted that the formula combines various medicines intended to “evacuate different humors,” and that depending on the quantity of the other medications with which it is combined, it is curative for choleric humor, bilious humor, liver obstructions, and melancholic humor; it also serves as a purgative.
Palau 282453 only mentions the second edition (Zaragoza, 1628).
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