De re metallica libri XII: quibus Officia Instrumenta Machinae ac omnia denique ad Mettalicam spectantia non modo luculentissime describuntur sed & per effigies suis locis insertas adiunctis Latinis Gemanicisque appellationibus ita ob oculos

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ponuntur ut clarius tradi non possint. Eiusden De animantibus Subterraneis Liber ab Autore recofnitus: cum Indicibus diversis quicquid in opere tractatum est puchre demostrantibus ...Basel: (Hieronymus Frobern and Nicolaus Bischoff) 1561. Folio. Later hf. calf over marbled-paper boards (front hinge weak but holding). (x 502 lxxii pp.). Complete with 273 woodcuts including title-vign. verso of colophon a fold. plate and chapter headings in good clean impression. Title-page and prelim pages III-VI replaced whilst pp. VII-X have marginal repairs without loss of text otherwise an excellent clean copy bearing occassional contemp. manuscript notes in the margins. A very good copy of the scarce second edition. NOTE: The "first systematic treatise on mining and metallurgy and one of the first technological books of modern times" (PMM). It is remarkably richly illustrated with technical woodcuts of the highest quality largely by Hans Rudolf Manuel Deutsch (after Blasius Weffring). All of them are based on Agricola's drawings of processes and phenomena he personally observed. The work "embraces everything connected with the mining industry and mettalurgical processes including administration prospecting the duties of officials and companies and the manufacture of glass sulphur and alum. The magnificent series of two hundred and seventy three large woodcut illustrations add to its value. Some of the most important sections are those on mechanical engineering and the use of water power hauling pumps ventilation blowing of furnaces transport of ores etc. showing a very elaborate technique" (PMM). It is "one of the great monuments of technology by reason of the comprehensiveness of its text and the detail and intelligibility of its numerous illustrations" (Singer Vol. II p. 27) and became "the early standard treatise" on the subject (Horblit 2b). It is also one of the important contributions to physcial geology in particular the influence of wind and water erosion on landscape and its clear account of the order of strata exposed by mines. The work concludes with a 20 page glossary of technical terms and names in Latin and German which contains a new scientific classification of minerals based on their physical properties; the mode of occurence and mutual relation of some 80 mineral ores are discussed no less than 21 of them for the first time. Written over two decades the work illustrated Bauer's familiarity both wth the technical and financial aspects of mining as well as his concern for the health of the miners. Bauer had studied medicine at Leipzig before moving to the important mining centre of Joachimstal (in latter-day Czechoslovakia) as the town physician. There Bauer observed both by day and by night the unceasing activities of the mines "and his interests were aroused by the metallurgical mineralogical and chemical problems of the trade. He published several books relating to these the above is outstanding in the field of all science and technology; it was published posthumously. Many large woodcuts present vivid picturesof men at work machines pumping ventilating smelting assaying transportation and hoisting equipment and methods of the time" (Dibner Heralds of Science 88). The work was translated into English in 1912 by Herbert Hoover afterwards President of the United States.