GEORGIUS AGRICOLA (GEORG BAUER, 1494-1555) De re metallica libri XII. -- De animantibus subterraneis liber . Basel: Hieronymus Froben and Nicolaus Bischoff, March 1556. 2° (326 x 219mm). Woodcut printer's device on title, repeated on Bb6v. Roman, greek and gothic types. 2 woodcut plates, one folding, woodcut illustrations and diagrams, the majority full-page-width, some full-page, white-on-black initials. Retaining blank \Ka\k 6. (Occasional light spotting and marking, margins with some minor dampstaining and worming, a few small repairs, folding plate tightly-bound.) 17th-century English sprinkled calf ruled in blind, 20th-century tan morocco spine with gilt morocco lettering-piece (some scuffing and rubbing, rebacked and recornered, endpapers replaced). Provenance : occasional pencilled annotations -- bookplate covered with later labels. FIRST EDITION. 'THE FIRST SYSTEMATIC TREATISE ON MINING AND METALLURGY AND ONE OF THE FIRST TECHNOLOGICAL BOOKS OF MODERN TIMES' (PMM), published by Froben four months after the author's death. The last of a flow of important technological, economic and philosophical works by Agricola, De re metallica combined a profound technical and financial knowledge of mining with an underlying interest in the health and daily routine of mine workers. Having studied medicine at Leipzig, Agricola spent three years at Bologna and Venice as a member of the editorial staff for the Aldine editions of Galen and Hippocrates. In 1527 he became town physician and apothecary of St Joachimstal in Czechoslovakia, then the most important mining-centre in Europe besides Schwaz in the Tyrol, and he was subsequently town physician at Chemnitz, a copper-smelting town in the Erzgebirge. There he profited from his interest in mining shares, and became one of the town's twelve richest inhabitants. Written over a 20-year period between 1530 and 1550, the twelve books of De re metallica have an earlier treatise on subterranean zoology, De animantibus subterraneis (first published Basel: 1549), appended, and 'embrace everything connected with the mining industry and metallurgical processes, including administration, prospecting, the duties of officials and companies, and the manufacture of glass, sulphur and alum' (PMM). The fine series of almost 300 woodcuts -- which illustrate all aspects of the subject, including instruments, forges, and mines -- were used for 101 years in seven editions; some are signed with the monogram 'RMD', and they are generally attributed to Hans Rudolf Manuel Deutsch (fl.1525-1572, or, less commonly Blasius Weffring). Adams A-349; Brunet I, 113; Dibner Heralds 88; Duveen pp.4-5; Grolier Science 2b; Hoover Mining 17; Norman 20; PMM 79.
GEORGIUS AGRICOLA (GEORG BAUER, 1494-1555) De re metallica libri XII. -- De animantibus subterraneis liber . Basel: Hieronymus Froben and Nicolaus Bischoff, March 1556. 2° (326 x 219mm). Woodcut printer's device on title, repeated on Bb6v. Roman, greek and gothic types. 2 woodcut plates, one folding, woodcut illustrations and diagrams, the majority full-page-width, some full-page, white-on-black initials. Retaining blank \Ka\k 6. (Occasional light spotting and marking, margins with some minor dampstaining and worming, a few small repairs, folding plate tightly-bound.) 17th-century English sprinkled calf ruled in blind, 20th-century tan morocco spine with gilt morocco lettering-piece (some scuffing and rubbing, rebacked and recornered, endpapers replaced). Provenance : occasional pencilled annotations -- bookplate covered with later labels. FIRST EDITION. 'THE FIRST SYSTEMATIC TREATISE ON MINING AND METALLURGY AND ONE OF THE FIRST TECHNOLOGICAL BOOKS OF MODERN TIMES' (PMM), published by Froben four months after the author's death. The last of a flow of important technological, economic and philosophical works by Agricola, De re metallica combined a profound technical and financial knowledge of mining with an underlying interest in the health and daily routine of mine workers. Having studied medicine at Leipzig, Agricola spent three years at Bologna and Venice as a member of the editorial staff for the Aldine editions of Galen and Hippocrates. In 1527 he became town physician and apothecary of St Joachimstal in Czechoslovakia, then the most important mining-centre in Europe besides Schwaz in the Tyrol, and he was subsequently town physician at Chemnitz, a copper-smelting town in the Erzgebirge. There he profited from his interest in mining shares, and became one of the town's twelve richest inhabitants. Written over a 20-year period between 1530 and 1550, the twelve books of De re metallica have an earlier treatise on subterranean zoology, De animantibus subterraneis (first published Basel: 1549), appended, and 'embrace everything connected with the mining industry and metallurgical processes, including administration, prospecting, the duties of officials and companies, and the manufacture of glass, sulphur and alum' (PMM). The fine series of almost 300 woodcuts -- which illustrate all aspects of the subject, including instruments, forges, and mines -- were used for 101 years in seven editions; some are signed with the monogram 'RMD', and they are generally attributed to Hans Rudolf Manuel Deutsch (fl.1525-1572, or, less commonly Blasius Weffring). Adams A-349; Brunet I, 113; Dibner Heralds 88; Duveen pp.4-5; Grolier Science 2b; Hoover Mining 17; Norman 20; PMM 79.
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