KURTZE EINLEITUNG IN EINIGE THEILE DER BERGWERCKS-WISSENSCHAFT

Johann Gottlob LEHMANN (1719-1767). Kurtze Einleitung in einige Theile der Bergwercks-Wissenschaft - Anfängern zum Besten abgefasset von D. Johann Gottlob Lehmann. [Brief Introduction to Certain Parts of the Science of Mining, Prepared for the Benefit of Beginners, by Dr. Johann Gottlob Lehmann.] Berlin: bei Christoph Gottlieb Nicolai, 1751. Small octavo (6 ¾ x 4 inches). Pp. [i-x; 1]-192; [i-v + vi blank].  2 engraved plates (one folding). Extensive early manuscript additions and notes + occasional small drawings in the blank margins. (One plate shaved into the image area, worming to the upper inner blank margins of leaves from the title to pp33/34, and to the lower inner blank margin of the last few leaves).  Original speckled paper-covered boards, contemporary manuscript paper title label to the spine (extremities damaged, title label rubbed with a little loss). Provenance: numerous early amendments and additions.

A heavily annotated first edition of this rare, early, didactic handbook in which Lehmann, one of the leading mining and mineralogical practitioners of his time, presents a concise “short introduction to the science of mining” for beginners, codifying aspects of contemporary Bergwerkskunde [mining science]. This work stands near the beginning of his mining‑scientific output, and modern bibliographers note it as a rare work, with only a small number of institutional copies recorded and with specialized mineralogical bibliographies explicitly remarking on its rarity.

The present copy has the additional attraction of the plethora of contemporary additions, corrections and amplifications which ‘ornament’ almost every page. The foot of p.114 includes a reference to what appears to be a date: ‘1761’ and the author’s name ‘Lehman’ [sic.], but, otherwise,  the notes, etc. quite specifically refer to the printed text that they accompany. It is tempting to see these additions as more than corrections, to interpret them as an attempt to update the text in preparation for a revised edition? In any case they were clearly written by an individual with a deep practical knowledge of the subject. This is a work which should repay further examination.