Lazare

1672 · 2295 — <p>WITH 41 WOODCUTS OF MINING AND METALLURGICAL APPARATUS</p><p>Frankfurt Paul Hummen for Johann David Zunners 1672.</p><p>Small folio 18 x 29.5 cm. Engraved frontispiece signed P. Kilian 6 ff. 332 pp. 2 ff.; Appendix: 2 ff. 47 pp. Bound in contemporary stiff vellum covers and spine ruled. Ownership inscription of frontispiece shaved in right and lower margin as often; some waterstain on frontispiece title and scattered leaves strictly in margin; a single word scored on p. 143 i.e. 145r and replaced in pen at an early date; a burn affecting partial letters on pp. 157/58; p. 45 in appendix torn in blank gutter and re-margined. Generally good.</p><p>Scarce augmented edition of this illustrated technological classic "second only to Agricola in the number of original contributions to the literature of mining and metallurgy and the beauty of the graphic treatment of the crafts" Dibner 89 1574. It is testimony to the work's usefulness as a practical handbook that it continued to be used well into the 18th century.</p><p>"It presents a systematic review of the methods of testing alloys and minerals of silver gold copper antimony mercury bismuth and lead; of obtaining and refining these metals as well as of obtaining acids salts and other compounds. The last chapter is devoted to saltpeter. Ercker described laboratory procedures and equipment gave an account of preparing the cupel of constructing furnaces and of the assaying balance and the method of operating it" DSB.</p><p>"Ercker's treatise is the most authoritative contemporary work on 16th-century metallurgy and assaying. Ercker gave a systematic review of methods of testing alloys and minerals and of obtaining and refining various metals as well as methods of manufacturing acids salts and other chemical compounds including saltpeter. He described the apparatus and laboratory equipment used in metallurgy and assaying and gave a detailed account of laboratory methods all of which he himself had used" Norman.</p><p>First published in 1574 in Prague this is a work of considerable rarity which when it appears on the market commands a daunting price. It had a number of 16th- and 17th-century reprints though the present edition is the first augmented edition augmented with Berward's lexicon. It has the same number of woodcuts as the 1598 edition 41.</p><p> Ferguson I.243-4; Hoover 283 misreporting prelims: 7 including frontispiece is correct.</p> Paul Hummen for Johann David Zunners