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ERCKER, Lazarus (c.1530-c.1594). Beschreibung allerfurnemisten mineralischen Ertzt unnd Bergwercks Arten, wie dieselbigen ... irer Natur und Eigenschafft ... mit Erklärung etlicher ... Schmelszwerck ... Auffs newe ... erklert. Frankfurt: J. Schmidt for S. Feyrabendt, 1580.
2° (310 x 202mm). Title printed in red and black and with a woodcut vignette, woodcut coat-of-arms, and 41 cuts in the text. (Some light browning and dampstaining, a few leaves somewhat dustsoiled, repair to upper margin of title and lower margins of two leaves.) Contemporary dark green vellum (recased). Provenance: two stamps on title, contemporary annotations in German on verso of final blank.
Second edition of the first manual of analytical and metallurgical chemistry. 'In 1574 Ercker published his magnum opus, Beschreibung allerfürnemisten mineralischen Ertzt. 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. 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. He used as his model Agricola's De re metallica, yet was quite original and included only the procedures he himself had tested' (DSB). Wellcome 2066; cf. Dibner 89 (first edition); Hoover for the first edition, as well as later editions up to 1684.
2° (310 x 202mm). Title printed in red and black and with a woodcut vignette, woodcut coat-of-arms, and 41 cuts in the text. (Some light browning and dampstaining, a few leaves somewhat dustsoiled, repair to upper margin of title and lower margins of two leaves.) Contemporary dark green vellum (recased). Provenance: two stamps on title, contemporary annotations in German on verso of final blank.
Second edition of the first manual of analytical and metallurgical chemistry. 'In 1574 Ercker published his magnum opus, Beschreibung allerfürnemisten mineralischen Ertzt. 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. 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. He used as his model Agricola's De re metallica, yet was quite original and included only the procedures he himself had tested' (DSB). Wellcome 2066; cf. Dibner 89 (first edition); Hoover for the first edition, as well as later editions up to 1684.
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