Antiquarian Auctions

Auction #114 begins on 11 Apr 2024

Georgius Agricola

De Re Metallica

Translated from the First Latin Edition of 1556 with Biographical Introduction, Annotations and Appendices upon the Development of mining methods, Metallurgical Processes, Geology, Mineralogy & Mining law from the earliest times to the 16th Century

Published: The Mining Magazine, London, 1912

Edition: 1912 edition

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Subscribers edition, 1912, limited to 3000 copies (not stated), The Mining Magazine (MM), translated by Herbert and Lou Hoover, bookplate of Hugh F. Marriott,  illustrated with 289 woodcut images  from the 1556 edition, 640 pages, uncut, bound with the original full vellum boards, titles in black to spine with MM device. Beautifully produced English edition of the authoritative text on mining and chemistry for 180 years after original publication. Condition: very good.

De Re Metallica [On the Nature of Metals {or Minerals}]  was the highly influential standard treatise used throughout Europe. The woodcuts detail a medieval world of machinery, industrial technique, tools, even costume and architecture, illustrating the various specialized techniques of the many branches of mining, making this book the practical reference to the latest in mining technology (in the middle ages). Also alluvial mining, alchemy, silver refining, smelting, surveying, timbering, nitric acid making, and hundreds of other phases of the medieval art of metallurgy are covered.

Herbert Hoover, and his wife Lou, a noted linguist and scholar, translating from the original Latin, filled this edition with classical references in the footnotes.

Herbert Hoover, by profession a mining engineer, was the 31st President of the United States (1929–1933), and a director of the Chinese Engineering and Mining Corporation (CEMC) when it became a supplier of Chinese labour for South African mines prior to 1914. The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace is located at Stanford University in California.

The subscriber to this particular copy, the Hugh F. Marriott on the bookplate, was  president of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy . He was also a fellow of the Geological Society and a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Mining Engineers, the American Institution of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, the Chemical and Metallurgical and Mining Society of South Africa, the Geological Society of South Africa, and the South African Institution of Engineers.

During the Boer War Mr. Marriott attained the rank of captain in the Rand Rifles, and raised the Rand Rifles Association to 500 members.

Hugh Marriott was one of the first engineers to demonstrate the possibilities of deep-level mining. He brought out an invention for surveying boreholes by means of which it was found possible to ascertain the actual depths of reef deposits which previously had been considered to lie too deep for exploitation. Owing to his intimate knowledge of South African conditions, Hugh Marriott has been able to introduce on the Rand many improvements in metallurgy, such as the use of Nissen stamps in crushing, and the employment of Butters filters for the treatment of slimes. He also was responsible for the adoption there of the principles of English colliery practice, which have resulted in the sinking of circular shafts with greatly increased hoisting capacity and speed, and enabled the centralization of underground transport throughout the mines of the Rand (American-Canadian Genealogical Society).

  • Binding Condition: very good
  • Overall Condition: very good
  • Size: 230 x 355mm


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