MORNING SESSION (lots 1-161)
10:00 a.m.
PRINTED BOOKS
from the Library of
ROBERT A. HEFNER III
AGRICOLA, GEORGIUS. De re metallica libri XII, March 1556. [Bound with:] De mensuris & ponderibus Romanorum atque Graecorum [and other treatises], [March 1550], both Basel: Hieronymus Froben and Nicolaus Episcopius. 2 vols. in one, folio, 324 x 227 mm. (12 3/4 x 8 5/8 in.), seventeenth-century French dark brown calf over thick pasteboard, sides with double gilt fillet border, at center the gilt arms of Gaspard Coignet de la Thuilerie, comte de Courson (Olivier 1463), spine in seven gold-tooled compartments, later red morocco lettering-piece and small circular green morocco shelf-mark label in the second and sixth compartments respectively, edges red-sprinkled, joints restored, rubbed, extremities worn with some loss to leather, occasional light foxing, a few leaves darkened, De mensuris lacking last 8 leaves (quire F), title soiled, lower fore-corner of first 12 leaves frayed, some marginal worming.
Details
AGRICOLA, GEORGIUS. De re metallica libri XII, March 1556. [Bound with:] De mensuris & ponderibus Romanorum atque Graecorum [and other treatises], [March 1550], both Basel: Hieronymus Froben and Nicolaus Episcopius. 2 vols. in one, folio, 324 x 227 mm. (12 3/4 x 8 5/8 in.), seventeenth-century French dark brown calf over thick pasteboard, sides with double gilt fillet border, at center the gilt arms of Gaspard Coignet de la Thuilerie, comte de Courson (Olivier 1463), spine in seven gold-tooled compartments, later red morocco lettering-piece and small circular green morocco shelf-mark label in the second and sixth compartments respectively, edges red-sprinkled, joints restored, rubbed, extremities worn with some loss to leather, occasional light foxing, a few leaves darkened, De mensuris lacking last 8 leaves (quire F), title soiled, lower fore-corner of first 12 leaves frayed, some marginal worming.
De re metallica: FIRST EDITION, all 3 blank leaves present, roman type, some Greek letter, German words in glossary in gothic type, printer's woodcut device on title and verso of colophon leaf, 273 large woodcuts, many full-page, depicting scenes of mining and metallurgy, by Hans Rudolf Manuel Deutsch after(?) Blasius Weffring, including two inserted leaves, each with a full-page woodcut (one folding), bound in after fol. i2, 7- and 9-line historiated metalcut initials. Adams A-349; Dibner Heralds of Science 88; Grolier/Horblit 2b; Norman 20; PMM 79. De mensuris: Third edition (following two 1533 editions), enlarged, woodcut printer's device on title, metalcut initials. Adams A-344; Honeyman sale I,24.
De re metallica is "the first systematic treatise on mining and metallurgy and one of the first technological treatises of modern times" (Printing and the Mind of Man). As town physician in St. Joachimstal (Czechoslovakia), in the center of one of the most important mining districts in Europe, the humanist scholar Georgius Agricola (or Georg Bauer, 1494-1555) became immersed in the lives of his patients and developed a thorough acquaintance with the techniques and equipment of mining and metallurgy. He had previously studied the pharmaceutical uses of minerals and smelting products. This, his magnum opus, which he took twenty years to complete, "embraces everything connected with the mining industry and metallurgical processses, including administration, prospecting, the duties of officials and companies and the manufacture of glass, sulphur and alum... Some of the most important sections are those on mechanical engineering and the use of water-power, hauling, pumps, ventilation, blowing of furnaces, transport of ores, etc., showing a very elaborate technique" (op cit.).
Provenance: Gaspard Coignet de la Thuilerie, Comte de Courson (1596-1653), ambassador to Venice and later to the Netherlands -- Pierre E. Martin, early signature on front free endpaper.
De re metallica: FIRST EDITION, all 3 blank leaves present, roman type, some Greek letter, German words in glossary in gothic type, printer's woodcut device on title and verso of colophon leaf, 273 large woodcuts, many full-page, depicting scenes of mining and metallurgy, by Hans Rudolf Manuel Deutsch after(?) Blasius Weffring, including two inserted leaves, each with a full-page woodcut (one folding), bound in after fol. i2, 7- and 9-line historiated metalcut initials. Adams A-349; Dibner Heralds of Science 88; Grolier/Horblit 2b; Norman 20; PMM 79. De mensuris: Third edition (following two 1533 editions), enlarged, woodcut printer's device on title, metalcut initials. Adams A-344; Honeyman sale I,24.
De re metallica is "the first systematic treatise on mining and metallurgy and one of the first technological treatises of modern times" (Printing and the Mind of Man). As town physician in St. Joachimstal (Czechoslovakia), in the center of one of the most important mining districts in Europe, the humanist scholar Georgius Agricola (or Georg Bauer, 1494-1555) became immersed in the lives of his patients and developed a thorough acquaintance with the techniques and equipment of mining and metallurgy. He had previously studied the pharmaceutical uses of minerals and smelting products. This, his magnum opus, which he took twenty years to complete, "embraces everything connected with the mining industry and metallurgical processses, including administration, prospecting, the duties of officials and companies and the manufacture of glass, sulphur and alum... Some of the most important sections are those on mechanical engineering and the use of water-power, hauling, pumps, ventilation, blowing of furnaces, transport of ores, etc., showing a very elaborate technique" (op cit.).
Provenance: Gaspard Coignet de la Thuilerie, Comte de Courson (1596-1653), ambassador to Venice and later to the Netherlands -- Pierre E. Martin, early signature on front free endpaper.