Georgii Agricolae de re metallica libri xii. Quibus Officia, Instrumenta, Machinæ, ac omnia denique ad Metallicam spectantia, non modo luculentissimè describuntur, sed & per effigies, suis locis insertas, adiunctis Latinis, Germanicisque appelationibus ita ob oculos ponuntur, ut clarius tradi non possint. Eiusdem de animantibus subterraneis Liber, ab Autore recognitus: cum Indicibus diuersis, quicquid in opere tractatum est, pulchrè demonstrantibus
Basel: Hieronymus Froben and Nicolaus Episcopius, March 1556. First edition.
Folio in 6s (11 ¾” x 8”, 300mm x 204mm): 3 binder’s blanks, α4 χ1 a-z6 A-Bb6, 5 binder’s blanks [$4 signed]. 293 leaves, pp. [10] (title, French privilege, 4pp. epistle, 4pp. verses to the reader) 1-501 538 [74] (21pp. index to book one, 17pp. index to book two, 26pp. index to book three, 8pp. index to the De animantia, colophon, printer’s mark). [=x, 478, 24, lxxiv] With 292 woodcuts integral to the text and 2 woodcut plates hors-texte, of which 1 is folding.
Bound in modern all’antica paneled calf by Geert van Daal (per a graphite notation to the front paste-down). On the spine, four raised bands. Author and title blind to the second panel, date blind to the tail. All edges of the text-block sprinkled red. Presented in a brown cloth clam-shell box.
A very little scuffing to the binding. A small patch of loss to the bottom edge of the text-block (rodent?). Mild even tanning throughout, with the odd page of foxing or soiling. Damp-stain to the lower fore-corner of P2-R2, not affecting the text. A 55mm x 33mm patch to the title-page, with the text verso supplied (about 26 characters). Ink manuscript “30” and “Año de 1556” to the title-page. Ink marginalia to 63 pages,[1] including a table of Roman currency equivalencies to the colophon.
Minerals and metals are so essential to human development that they have defined eras of humanity both among the ancients — e.g., Hesiod’s ages of gold, silver, bronze and iron in the Works and Days vss. 109–201 — and the moderns, as in the bronze age and iron age in various civilizations. Indeed, the word “metal,” from the Greek μέταλλον (metallon), though its true etymology is unclear, has been derived since antiquity as μετʼ ἄλλα (met(a) alla, [the search] after other things) — it is the index of man’s curiosity. Thus, Georg Bauer (latinized to Georgius Agricola (meaning, as both “Georgius” and “Bauer” do, “farmer”) 1494–1555) throughout his life sought to record the history, knowledge and technique of prospecting, extracting, smelting and forging minerals (i.e., the products of mine; defined by the OED 2.c as “a solid, naturally occurring, usually inorganic substance with a definite chemical composition and characteristic physical structure and properties (such as crystalline form)”). From his early treatise on Classical weights and measures (De mensuris et pondibus, 1533), he continued to publish on things found below the surface of the Earth.
De re metallica, published a year after his death — generally asserted to be due to the complexity of the woodcuts — was the culmination of his scholarship, and begins with a meditation on the field itself and proceeds through practical considerations of extracting, refining and working of metals. Addressed to the princes of the land — mineral rights being an essential aspect of land-ownership; even to the present the Crown owns (nearly) all minerals in the United Kingdom — the work described and, crucially, illustrates the theory and practice of metallurgy in the broadest sense (including, as a practical consideration, a 24-page treatise De animantibus subterraneis, on the animals found below the ground). The woodcuts, executed by Hans Rudolf Manuel Deutsch (1525–1571), span landscape, tools, diagrams, workshops, workers and techniques. For its comprehensiveness and usefulness the book is included in the epochal list of books that trace human thought: Printing and the Mind of Man (no. 79). Its great translation into English was carried out by Herbert Hoover (along with his wife) before he was president.
The marginalia are generally on the order of headings or summaries; the hand appears to be XVIIc or XVIIIc, and the notes are in Latin. The date on the title-page (“Año de 1556”), which is a distinct hand, would seem to point toward a Spanish owner. That second hand may be responsible for the correction to p. 107 (striking through “uerricula,” rakes): “lo testado, se ha de leer Rutra,” i.e., that it should read “rutra” (shovels or spades). The ownership signature excised from the title-page would doubtless have shed some light.
Dibner, Heralds of Science 88; Printing and the Mind of Man 79; VD16 A 933 (A 907: De animantibus subterraneis liber).
[1] Pp. 25-26, 75-79, 81, 87, 107, 172, 182-187, 190-197, 329, 366, 368, 417, 432-433, 436, 493-495 (correcting p. no.), index to book 3 (17pp., largely side-dots), colophon.
Item #JLR0758
Price: $52,000