[MEDICINE / PHARMACY]: ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT DIPLOMA FROM THE VENETIAN COLLEGE OF APOTHECARIES (dated 1701) awarded to Pietro Bellonato of Murano (Venice) Bellonato, Pietro (graduate of the College) Boston Book Fair 2025,Manuscripts,Medicine

4to (220 x 165 mm). Nine vellum leaves (see below) + 2 blank paper leaves. Contemporary Venetian calf richly gilt, recently rebacked and repaired, evidence of two pairs of ties, mottled pastedowns (vellum a bit wrinkled with some occasional staining and offsetting). THIS CHARMING ILLUMINATED DIPLOMA FROM THE VENETIAN COLLEGE OF APOTHECARIES IS OF AN UNUSUAL TYPE: BRIGHTLY COLORED AND HIGHLIGHTED IN LIQUID GOLD, OUR "PRIVILIGIUM IN ARTE AROMATORIA" SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN CREATED BY AN AS-YET UNIDENTIFIED STATIONER WHO IN TWO INSTANCES UTILIZED THE IDENTICAL BOUQUET PATTERN. "AROMATARIA" were apothecaries (today's pharmacists) who were guild-trained medical practitioners. These apothecaries were simultaneously "retailers of secrets" and "public professors" who sold special curative herbs, medicinal chemical concoctions, salves, recipes, and even medical books and manuscripts. "Through these practices, apothecaries not only marketed commercial remedies during a period of growing interest in pharmaceutical matters, but also fashioned their own expertise as learned medical practitioners linking both theory and practice; head and hand; natural philosophy and practiced skill" (Sean David Parrish, p. v). VENETIAN APOTHECARIES apothecaries began organizing as a guild as early as the 13th century. In 1565 they began to define the profession by establishing a College of Apothecaries, which -- incredibly -- lasted until 1804. Only graduates of the College were allowed to open their own pharmacy. Venetian pharmacists in particular were responsible for an increasingly diverse pharmacopia of exotic materials imported from around the globe, and by extension the first chemical laboratories at the University of Padua. Filippo de Vivo has show that these early pharmacies were important centers of medical discourse in Early Modern Venice (see below). CONTENTS: nine full-page illuminations and four pages of handwritten text, including: two bouquets (near duplicates), Justitia (unfinished), the Venetian Lion with the date of the diploma in a cartouche, another Venetian Lion below which are four blank shields, and a page depicting eight emblems with abbreviated names within the banderolles above, although they do not appear to be formal armorial devices. This particular example is not textually incomplete, but there may have been one (or more?) leaves present, judging from the odd collation. There is a vellum quire guard around the central bifolium (text). The scribe responsible for these four pages was certainly more accomplished that the individual (or individuals) who created the full-page illuminations, which are amateurish and in one instance (Justicia) unfinished. It is known that the buyer could engage more than one workshop to assemble a single manuscript, and that seems to have been the case here. No one seems to have noticed that there are two nearly identical full-page bouquets herein, suggesting that they were modelled after a stationer's pattern. While the illuminator was unskilled, the binder was not, and its gilting is regular and accomplished. In conclusion, this particular manuscript exhibits several interesting aspects of the book trade in early modern Venice. THE DIPLOMA: the College approves as an apothecary one Pietro Bellonate, pronouncing and declaring him to be "most fit and sufficient" in this practice, and to open a pharmacy not only in the City of Venice but in the surrounding district, so that he may practice "freely and with impunity." TRANSLATION OF THE TEXT: "To all and sundry, We, the Ancient Justiciaries for the Most Serene Venetian Republic, signify these Our Views and Readings, and we give Faith in these series. How that on the day of the present dates underwritten, the Magistrate by edict of the College of Aromataries of this illustrious City was summoned, as is the custom, at the request of Pietro Bellonato of Muriano (Venice), the son of Vincenti (Bellonato), that his Sufficiency and Learning in the Art of Aromatolo