HARVEY, WILLIAM. 1578-1657.


Letter signed ("Will: Harvey") in English, 1 p, 4to (243 x 141 mm), n.p., dated January 4, 1639/40 [the 14th year of the reign of Charles I, in Latin]. Some restorations, minor dampstaining to upper margin. Tipped into a gilt lettered modern morocco binding by Alix of Paris that also contains a stipple portrait of Harvey and a letter from Geoffrey Keynes to Hans P. Kraus (transcribed below). In a matching slip case by Axis from black morocco and balsa wood.Provenance: Unidentified private collector mentioned by Silas Weir Mitchell in Some Memoranda in Regard to William Harvey, 1907); HP Kraus, 1957 (catalogue 85 item 44); Max Thorek (1880-1960) Chicago surgeon (his sale, Parke-Bernet 15 November, 1960, lot 263); unnamed consignor (Parke-Bernet 11 April, 1967 lot 113); unnamed consignor (Sotheby's New York, 22 May, 1985, lot 322); Jean-Louis Moses (his sale, Christie's Paris, 25 June 2004, lot 94, bound as the above). Order to the Exchequer issued in his capacity of physician in ordinary to Charles I. Geoffrey Keynes published the text of Harvey's letter in his biography of William Harvey (Oxford 1966). Keynes wrote, "One duty of the royal physician was the control of the medicines dispensed for the use of the members of the royal household. Two documents signed by Harvey in this connexion have survived. One dated 4 January 1639/40 is as follows: 'Quarto die Januarii anno Regis: Charoli Angliae, Scotiae, Frantiae et Hiberniae decimo quarto. Adriaen Metcalfe deputy Apoth[ecary] for his Ma'ties most honourable household desireth allowance for Phisicall stuff delivered & spent upon his highness poore household servants from the feast of St. Michal the Arch Angell until the feast of the Birth of our blessed Saviour last past the some of fifteen pounds to be paid out on the receipt of his highness Exchequer accordinge to a warrant dormant in that behalfe. Will Harvey'" (Keynes). Accompanied by an autograph letter referring to this Harvey letter signed by Geoffrey Keynes, and dated 1957, to H.P. Kraus: "I am particularly interested to see that you have a Harvey signature. I think your claim that it is the only one in the U.S.A. is quite correct. Very few documents of Harvey's have survived." The catalogues for the sales listed in the provenance (Kraus, Thorek, Sotheby's and Moses) are also included. See Keynes William Harvey (1966) p 280; for Adrian Metcalfe, see L. G. Matthews The Royal Apothecaries (1967), pp 100-101.