Ercker, Lazarus | Contemporary manuscript copy of his Beschreibung allerfurnemisten mineralischen Ertz unnd Bergkwercks Arten

Ercker, Lazarus

Contemporary manuscript copy of Beschreibung allerfurnemisten mineralischen Ertz unnd Bergkwercks Arten, published in Frankfurt am Main in 1598

Folio (292 x 200 mm). Manuscript, 300 leaves, written in the same hand throughout, illustrated with approximately 43 pen-and-ink drawings, heightened with grey washes, showing the operations and apparatuses of metallurgy and assaying, the drawings laid-down in the text, each with a border drawn in ink; light spotting throughout, dampstaining in the top margin affecting the final third of text, the front free endpaper detaching at the top and bottom along gutter but still holding at the center of the leaf, a paper repair at the top of leaf 232 not affecting the text. Contemporary full German blind-stamped pigskin over wooden boards, with metal bosses at corners, and two clasps at the fore-edge, all edges stained blue; boards rubbed, a few spots of wear to extremities, lacking one metal boss, later manuscript paper spine label.

A fascinating contemporary illustrated manuscript copy of Ercker’s important treatise on metallurgy and assaying, first published in 1574 (see lot 95 for a second, 1580 edition of the printed text). 

PROVENANCE

Sotheby’s London, 7 December 2000, lot 147