The Property of
A GENTLEMAN
ERCKER, LAZARUS. Beschreibung: Allerfürnemsten Mineralischen Ertzt, unnd Berckwercks arten, wie dieselbigen, unnd eine jede in sonderheit, jrer natur und eigenschafft nach, auff alle Metaln Probirt, und im kleinem fewer [ie., feuer] sollen versucht werden. (Prague: Georg Schwartz 1574).
Details
ERCKER, LAZARUS. Beschreibung: Allerfürnemsten Mineralischen Ertzt, unnd Berckwercks arten, wie dieselbigen, unnd eine jede in sonderheit, jrer natur und eigenschafft nach, auff alle Metaln Probirt, und im kleinem fewer [ie., feuer] sollen versucht werden. (Prague: Georg Schwartz 1574).
Folio, 295 x 195mm. (11 5/8 x 7 5/8in.), contemporary panelled sheep over pasteboard, large central ornamental lozenges on sides, gilt tooled but with only traces of gold remaining, very worn, particularly at top and bottom of spine, corners and board edges, scuffed, lacks ties, two ink deletions and an ink ownership stamp on title-page, very slight marginal wormholes at front and back, text a little browned, modern red quarter morocco slipcase.
FIRST EDITION, gothic type, title in red and black with large wooduct, 33 large woodcuts in text of mining, smelting and assaying operations, apparatus and furnaces.
Dibner Heralds of Science 89; Norman 707.
[Much rarer than] "Agricola's De re metallica (on which the Beschreibung is modelled), Ercker's treatise is the most authoritative contemporary work on sixteenth-century metallurgy and assaying."--Norman. Ercker (c. 1530-1594) attended the University of Wittenberg before being appointed, through his wife's connections, assayer at Dresden by Elector Augustus. Successively warden of the mints at Annaberg and Goslar, he travelled to Prague after his wife's death in 1567 and secured his brother-in-law's help to be appointed control tester at Kutna Hora. His reputation and his writings "brought him to the attention of Emperor Maximilian II, who named him his courier for mining affairs and clerk in the Supreme Office of the Bohemian crown. During the reign of the next emperor, Rudolf II...[he] became chief inspector of mines and was knighted....In 1574 Ercker published his magnum opus, Beschreibung....The only one of Ercker's works to contain many drawings, 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...Beschreibung may be regarded as the first manual of analytical and metallurgical chemistry."--Dictionary of Scientific Biography.
Provenance: Robert Honeyman, bookplate (sale, Sotheby's London, 1 May 1979, lot 963)--British Rail Pension Fund (sale, Sotheby's London, 27 Deptember 1988, lot 181).
Folio, 295 x 195mm. (11 5/8 x 7 5/8in.), contemporary panelled sheep over pasteboard, large central ornamental lozenges on sides, gilt tooled but with only traces of gold remaining, very worn, particularly at top and bottom of spine, corners and board edges, scuffed, lacks ties, two ink deletions and an ink ownership stamp on title-page, very slight marginal wormholes at front and back, text a little browned, modern red quarter morocco slipcase.
FIRST EDITION, gothic type, title in red and black with large wooduct, 33 large woodcuts in text of mining, smelting and assaying operations, apparatus and furnaces.
Dibner Heralds of Science 89; Norman 707.
[Much rarer than] "Agricola's De re metallica (on which the Beschreibung is modelled), Ercker's treatise is the most authoritative contemporary work on sixteenth-century metallurgy and assaying."--Norman. Ercker (c. 1530-1594) attended the University of Wittenberg before being appointed, through his wife's connections, assayer at Dresden by Elector Augustus. Successively warden of the mints at Annaberg and Goslar, he travelled to Prague after his wife's death in 1567 and secured his brother-in-law's help to be appointed control tester at Kutna Hora. His reputation and his writings "brought him to the attention of Emperor Maximilian II, who named him his courier for mining affairs and clerk in the Supreme Office of the Bohemian crown. During the reign of the next emperor, Rudolf II...[he] became chief inspector of mines and was knighted....In 1574 Ercker published his magnum opus, Beschreibung....The only one of Ercker's works to contain many drawings, 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...Beschreibung may be regarded as the first manual of analytical and metallurgical chemistry."--Dictionary of Scientific Biography.
Provenance: Robert Honeyman, bookplate (sale, Sotheby's London, 1 May 1979, lot 963)--British Rail Pension Fund (sale, Sotheby's London, 27 Deptember 1988, lot 181).