BIRINGUCCIO, Vanocchio (1480-1539?). De la Pirotechnia. Libri X. Dove ampiamente si tratta non solo de ogni sorte & diversita de Miniere, ma anchora quanto si ricerca intorno a la prattica di quelle cosi di quel che si appartiene a l'arte de la fusione over gitto de metalli. Venice: Venturino Rossinello for Curtio Navo and brothers, 1540.

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BIRINGUCCIO, Vanocchio (1480-1539?). De la Pirotechnia. Libri X. Dove ampiamente si tratta non solo de ogni sorte & diversita de Miniere, ma anchora quanto si ricerca intorno a la prattica di quelle cosi di quel che si appartiene a l'arte de la fusione over gitto de metalli. Venice: Venturino Rossinello for Curtio Navo and brothers, 1540.

4o (202 x 147 mm). Roman type, titlepage with wide woodcut border (incorporating an emblem of Venice, equipment used in metallurgy and smelting and the printer's lion device), 84 rectangular woodcuts (mostly 51 x 101mm., three larger), 7-line woodcut capitals. (Outer margin of title slightly frayed, some mostly marginal dampstaining near end, minor worming to some lower margins). 18th-century German half vellum, gilt edges (recased); cloth folding case. Provenance: E.N. da C. Andrade (bookplate).

FIRST EDITION of the earliest book on metallurgy, with important sections on smelting of metals, metal-casting, type-founding, fireworks and gunpowder. Adams B-2080; Cockle, Military Books 931; Dibner, Heralds of Science 38 ("Written for the practicing metallurgist, foundryman, dyer, type-founder, glass-maker, and maker of gunpowder, fireworks and chemicals used in warfare"); Duveen 79 ("...Biringuccio should be credited with the first description of silver liquation, and...was the first to mention cobalt blue and manganese"); Harvard/Mortimer Italian 66; Partington II, 32-37; Wellcome 873; Norman 238.