Agricola, Georgius | Two works bound together in contemporary half pigskin, including "The first handbook of modern systematic mineralogy," Basel, 1546, 1550

Agricola, Georgius

De ortu & causis subterraneorum Lib. V. De natura eorum quæ effluunt ex terra Lib. I. De natura fossilium Lib. X. De ueteribus & nouis metallis Lib. II. Bermannus, siue De re metallica dialogus. Interpretatio Germanica uocum rei metallicæ, addito indice fœcundissimo. Basel: (Hieronymus) Froben (and Nicolaus Episcopius, September), 1546

[bound with:]

Georgius Agricola. De mensuris et ponderibus Romanorum atque Graecorum Lib V. De externis mensuris et ponderibus Lib II. Ad ea, quae Andreas Alciatus denuo disputavit de mensuris et ponderibus, brevis defensio Lib I. De mensuris, quibus intervalla metimur Lib I. De restituendis ponderibus atque mensuris Lib I. De precio metallorum et monetis Lib III. Basel: (Hieronymus) Froben (and Nicolaus Episcopius, March), 1550

Two works in one volume, folio (317 x 202 mm). De ortu: Roman types, with a little gothic and Greek, woodcut printer's device on title and last page, full-page woodcut and typographic diagram on n3v, historiated woodcut initials, section-titles to the four additional works, with blanks g6 and M6. De mensuris: Roman and Greek types, with a some Hebrew and gothic, woodcut printer's device on title and last page, full-page woodcut and typographic diagrams on t1v and x4v, historiated woodcut initials, section-titles to the five additional works, with blank x6. A bit of scattered worming and browning. Contemporary half red pigskin over bevelled beech boards, sides blind rolled, remnants of two clasps; catches lacking from front cover, extremities rubbed, spine faded and restored.

First edition of “The first handbook of modern systematic mineralogy” (Horblit), bound with the first folio edition of Agricola's treatise on weights and measures.

According to Herbert Hoover, “Agricola's most important work … after De Re Metallica itself, was De Natura Fossilium which was the first systematic mineralogy and which was contained in this folio along with four other works of the German physician. The De Ortu et Causis Subterraneorum is considered the first work on physical geology, the De Natura Eorum Quae Effluunt Ex Terra deals with subterranean waters and gases, the De Veteribus et Novis Metallis recounts various references to metals and mines in classical history, and there is a new edition of Bermannus” (Hoover).

This folio printing of De mensuris is the first to include, among substantial further additions, the important treatise De precio metallorum et monetis, which “breaks new ground in discussing the price differential between gold and silver and the influence on the local economy of foreign as well as counterfeit money” (Tomash & Williams). 

A very attractive pair, despite the largely inconsequential worming.

REFERENCES

De ortu: Adams A345; Agricola-Bibliographie 3.6.7.1; Ferguson I:9; Grolier/Horblit 2a; Honeyman sale 1:25; Hoover 14; Norman 19; Stillwell, Science 563–65; Ward & Carozzi 28. De mensuris: Adams A344; Honeyman sale 1:24; Tomash & Williams A43; cf. Smith, Rara Arithmetica, pp. 171–73

PROVENANCE

Anthony Jonas Kilianstain (?, contemporary signature on front pastedown) — Andreas Felix von Oefele (1706–1780; bookplate on a2v)