Giovanni Battista Piscio, Breues elucidationes in tabulam smaragdinam Hermetis, Macerata 1703
Giovanni Battista Piscio or, more likely, Pesci, aimed, with his Elucidationes, to disambiguate the meaning of the cryptic precepts of Hermes Trismegistus in the legendary Emerald Table, a famous work of philosophical Hermeticism, according to the legend carved with the tip of a diamond on an green emerald plate. This had given rise, over the centuries, to the most varied interpretations and the alchemist himself would have appeared in a dream to the author to suggest the definitive explanation. The short treatise is dedicated to Cosimo III and shows on its cover the Medici coat of arms and on the title page the stamp of the Medici-Palatine Library. The specimen displayed it the exhibition is one of two known examples of the work.
Location: Firenze, Museo di Storia Naturale - Sezione di Geomineralogia