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Rare first edition of an important work by one of the foremost metallurgists of the 17th century

PETTUS, John.
Fleta Minor. The Laws of Art and Nature, in Knowing, Judging, Assaying, Fining, Refining and Inlarging the Bodies of confin'd Metals. In Tw Parts. The First contains Assays of Lazarus Erckern. The Second contains Essays on Metallick Words, as a Dictionary.

With 2 titles, engraved portrait of the author, and  43 large engravings in text on mining, distilling, and working metals.

With 2 titles, engraved portrait of the author, and  43 large engravings in text on mining, distilling, and working metals.

With 2 titles, engraved portrait of the author, and  43 large engravings in text on mining, distilling, and working metals.

With 2 titles, engraved portrait of the author, and  43 large engravings in text on mining, distilling, and working metals.

With 2 titles, engraved portrait of the author, and  43 large engravings in text on mining, distilling, and working metals.



London, Printed, for the author, by Thomas Dawks, 1683. 2 parts in 1 vol. Folio. Contemporary marbled calf (rebacked). With 2 titles, engraved portrait of the author, and  43 large engravings in text on mining, distilling, and working metals. (44), 345, (1 blank); (8), 133, (1 blank) pp.

Rare first edition of an important work by one of the foremost metallurgists of the 17th century. The first part is the first English adaption of the celebrated practical manual on mining and metals by Lazarus Ercker, inspector-general of Mining in the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy, and first published as early as 1574. Pettus followed the latest revised and enlarged edition from 1672, titled Aula Subterraneum.
The title Pettus chose for the work Fleta Minor, hinted to his imprisonment in the Fleet, having fought for Charles I in the Civil War. But Cromwell still appointed him deputy-governor of the Royal Mines. The illustrations to the work were re-drawn on copper after Ercker's original woodcuts, but all workmen were put into contemporary English costume. The second part also is of great importance, as it is the first edition of the first English dictionary of mining terms.

Fine copy, with the large bookplate, on mining, of R.C. Sticht.
Ferguson II, pp. 185-186 (first part in the ed. of 1686); Duveen 468; Wing P 1907; Honeyman 2461.

Related Subjects: Dictionaries  Earth Sciences [General]  Science 

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