Ercker, Lazarus | Second edition of this important illustrated treatise on metallurgy and assaying

Ercker, Lazarus

Beschreibung allerfurnemisten mineralischen Ertzt unnd Bergwercks Arten… Frankfurt: J. Schmidt for S. Feyrabendt, 1580

Folio (301 x 201 mm). Title page printed in red and black with woodcut vignette, woodcut armorial device on dedication leaf, woodcut illustrations, ornaments, and initials in text; occasional pale spotting and light staining. Contemporary limp vellum manuscript wrapper; stained and worn, but soundly bound.

The second edition of this practical and accurate sixteenth-century treatise on metallurgy and assaying, modelled after Agricola’s De Re Metallica. Ercker held a succession of mining, metallurgy, and mint posts in Dresden, Goslar, the Tyrol, Prague, and elsewhere over a thirty-year period, during which time he acquired extensive metallurgical experience. While in Prague, he wrote and, in 1574, published his magnum opus, the Beschreibung allerfurnemisten mineralischen. The book is notable for providing a systematic overview of techniques for testing alloys and minerals, describing how to acquire and refine them, and detailing the best methods for obtaining acids, salts, and other compounds.

“Ercker was an accurate recorder of facts, not a builder of theoretical systems. He writes with amazing clarity, with completely realistic descriptions of the apparatus used and straightforward instructions for various laboratory operations. His treatment of the subject is basically the same as found in any modern treatise on fire assaying, and in fact his work remained the standard text for several centuries after its first appearance” (Schuh, Vol I, 2008 edition, p. 491).

Despite the author's note to the reader stating that the second edition contains many changes, it is textually identical to the first edition. However, this edition includes 7 additional woodcut illustrations. The detailed illustrations, many of which fill most of their folio-sized pages, show mining, assaying, and metallurgical operations and equipment of all kinds.

REFERENCES

Schuh, Vol I (2008 ed.), 1549; Wellcome, I, 2066; Ward & Carozzi, 752