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ERCKER, Lazarus (1530-1594) and John PETTUS (1613-1690). Fleta minor. The Laws of Art and Nature, in knowing, judging, assaying, fining, refining and inlarging the bodies of confin’d metals. London: for the Author by Thomas Dawks, 1683.
2 parts in one volume, 2° (356 x 227mm). Engraved frontispiece of the author by R. White, 43 engraved illustrations, including 3 almost full-page, woodcut initials. (Small paper flaw in Yy2 affecting one letter, a few margins lightly waterstained, light spotting and a little marginal dust-soiling.) Later roan-backed cloth (rear cover detached, two corners worn.) Provenance: J. Chase (inscription on title recording the gift from the author) — David Roberts, Brentford 1770 (inscription on endpaper).
PRESENTATION COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH. The first part of this work is a translation of Lazarus Ercker's 1574 treatise on metallurgy and essaying, entitled Beschreibung aller fürnemisten mineralischen Ertzt- und Berckwercksarten. The shorter second part comprises a dictionary of metallurgical terms, while the accompanying illustrations show all the equipment necessary for the processes described: moulds, furnaces, muffles, touch needles, balances, etc. 'Along with 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). Hoover, 633; Wellcome II, 527; Wing P1906; cf. Dibner Heralds of Science 89: 'second only to Agricola in the number of original contributions to the literature of mining and metallurgy and the beauty of graphic treatments of the craft’; Norman 707.
2 parts in one volume, 2° (356 x 227mm). Engraved frontispiece of the author by R. White, 43 engraved illustrations, including 3 almost full-page, woodcut initials. (Small paper flaw in Yy2 affecting one letter, a few margins lightly waterstained, light spotting and a little marginal dust-soiling.) Later roan-backed cloth (rear cover detached, two corners worn.) Provenance: J. Chase (inscription on title recording the gift from the author) — David Roberts, Brentford 1770 (inscription on endpaper).
PRESENTATION COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH. The first part of this work is a translation of Lazarus Ercker's 1574 treatise on metallurgy and essaying, entitled Beschreibung aller fürnemisten mineralischen Ertzt- und Berckwercksarten. The shorter second part comprises a dictionary of metallurgical terms, while the accompanying illustrations show all the equipment necessary for the processes described: moulds, furnaces, muffles, touch needles, balances, etc. 'Along with 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). Hoover, 633; Wellcome II, 527; Wing P1906; cf. Dibner Heralds of Science 89: 'second only to Agricola in the number of original contributions to the literature of mining and metallurgy and the beauty of graphic treatments of the craft’; Norman 707.
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