De Re Metallica libri XII. Quibus Officia, Instrumenta, Machinae, Ac Omnia Denique Ad Metallicam Spectantia, Non Modo…

Basileae Helvet: Ludovici Regis. , 1621.. A fine and handsome example with decoratively blind tooled contemporary boards. Text and
plates are clean and crisp. A superb handsome copy.

. Edition: Third Latin edition. Text in Latin., Binding: contemporary blind tooled calf board, rebacked expertly saving the original spine, spine with four raised bands, title in gilt on dark brown calf label on spine, spine with decorative gilt motifs, upper and lower board with rules and blind decorative tooling.

, Notes: De Re Metallica (Latin for On the Nature of Metals [Minerals]) is a book cataloguing the state of
the art of mining, refining, and smelting metals, first published a year posthumously in 1556 due to a delay in preparing woodcuts for the text. The author was Georg Bauer, whose pen name was the Latinized Georgius Agricola. The book remained the authoritative text on mining for 180 years after its publication. It was also an important chemistry text for the period and is significant in the history of chemistry. This work is a comprehensive and systematic study, classification and methodical guide on all available factual and practical aspects, that are of concern for mining, the mining sciences and metallurgy, investigated and researched in its
natural environment by means of direct observation. Unrivalled in its complexity and accuracy, it served as the standard reference work for two centuries.
Georgius Agricola (1494 – 1555) was a German Humanist scholar, mineralogist and
metallurgist. Born in the small town of Glauchau, in the Electorate of Saxony of the Holy Roman
Empire, he was broadly educated, but took a particular interest in the mining and refining of
metals. He is well known for his pioneering work De Re Metallica libri XII, that was published in
1556, one year after his death. As a scholar of the Renaissance he was committed to a
universal approach towards learning and research and published over 40 complete scholarly works during his professional life on a wide range of subjects and disciplines, such as
pedagogy, medicine, metrology, mercantilism, pharmacy, philosophy, geology, history and
many more. His innovative and comprehensive scholarly work, based on new and precise
methods of production and control is remarkable and has earned him international admiration to this day.
, Size: Small Folio (330mm x 295m, Illustration: Illustrated with 292 plates with numerous drop caps, decorative head and tail pieces., Pages: P. Title, blank, dedications (2 leaves), readers notice (2 leaves), blank leaf, 1- 538, index (29 leaves)., Category: Book Science & Technology;