(Probier Buchlein) | An early edition with fine provenance

(Probier Buchlein)

Probier Buchlein auff Goldt, Silber, Ertz unnd Methal Mit vil köstlichen Alchimistichen Künsten, sampt aller zugehör, auch Instrumenten darzu dienstlich... Frankfurt: Heirs of C. Egenolff for Lonicer, Cnip, & Steinmeyer, 1574

Small 8vo (155 x 95 mm). Title printed in red and black with four woodcut diagrams, in-text diagrams; lacking final blank, some browning and offsetting, a few spots and stains. Contemporary blind-stamped paneled pigskin over wooden boards, arms of the Bavarian Elector Ludwig VI stamped on upper cover along with "HLP 1576," arms of his consort, Elisabeth von Hessen-Kassel, stamped on lower cover, original clasps and catches; some staining, spine restored.

An early edition of this essential work on metallurgy—a primary source for goldsmiths and jewelers.

In the numerous editions of the Probierbüchlein, there "are exhaustive lists of touch-needles of various composition. Directions are given with regard to assay furnaces, cupels, muffles, scorifiers, and crucibles, granulated and leaf metals, for washing, roasting, and the preparation of assay charges. Various assays are described and directions given for crucible, scorification, and cupellation tests. The latter part of the book is devoted to the refining and parting of precious metals. Instructions are given for the separation of silver from iron, from lead, and from antimony; of gold from silver with antimony (sulphide) and sulphur, or with sulphur alone, with 'scheidwasser,' and by cementation with salt; of gold from copper with sulphur and with lead. [...] It is of wider interest that these booklets represent the first milestone on the road to quantitative analysis, and in this light they have been largely ignored by the historians of chemistry" (Hoover, translation of De Re Metallica, pp. 613-14).

All early editions are of this work are scarce.

REFERENCES

Duveen, p. 486 (but lacking the final leaf); Ferguson, II: 226-27; Hoover 661. Sisco & Smith, Bergwerk- und Probierbüchlein (1949), p. 176

PROVENANCE

Louis VI, Elector Palatine, and Elisabeth of Hesse (arms to covers) — Hartung & Hartung, 13-15 May 2003, lot 426 (part)