Science & Technology / Mineralogy & Gems

[ACHILLINI, Alessandro]. Secreta secretorum Aristotelis.
Including:
- ARISTOTLE [pseudo]. Maximi philosophi ... de signis aquarum: & tempestatum.
- ARISTOTLE [pseudo]. Maximi philosophurum ... de mineralibus.
- ALEXANDER OF APHRODISIAS. De intellectu.
- AVERROES. De beatitudine anime.
- ACHILLINI, Alexander. De universalibus.
- ALEXANDER THE GREAT [pseudo]. De mirabilibus Indie.
(Colophon:) Lyon, Antoine Blanchard [printer's device of Louis Martin on last page, with initials L.M.], 23 March 1528. Small 8vo. With a title page with a 4-piece decorated woodcut border with flowers, birds and snails (with initials EB?), woodcut printer's device on last page, 6 woodcut initials (3 series) and a leaf ornament. Set in 3 sizes of rotunda gothic types, with the title in roman capitals. Contemporary blind-tooled sheepskin(?) parchment over wooden boards, sewn on 2 double cords, in a panel design with quadruple fillets and 2 decorative rolls (one with winged heads and tassles, the other with quatrefoils in lozenges), brass catch-plates and anchor-plates (straps and clasps lost). LXXXIII ll. Full description

ACOSTA, José de. Historie naturael ende morael van de Westersche Indien.
Enkhuizen, Jacob Lenaertsz. Meyn (colophon: Haarlem, printed by Gillis Rooman), 1598. 8vo. With a woodcut decoration on the title page. Vellum (ca. 1700?). [7], 398, [8] ll. Full description

ALBERTUS MAGNUS (pseudo). Liber secretorum ... De virtutibus herbarum: & animalium quorundam. Eiusdemq[ue] liber De mirabilibus mundi: & etiam de quibusdam effectibus causatis a quibusdam animalibus &c.
(Colophon: Venice, Johan Baptist Sessa, 12 February 1502). Small 4to (21 x 15.5 cm). With a large woodcut portrait of the author at his desk. Gold-tooled maroon morocco (ca. 1870/90?) for James Carnegie, 9th Earl of Southesk (1827-1905), gilt edges. 16 ll. Full description

BECKER, Wilhelm Gottlieb (editor). Der plauische Grund bei Dresden, mit Hinsicht auf Naturgeschichte und schöne Gartenkunst.
Nuremberg, Frauenholzischen Kunsthandlung, 1799. 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With an engraved folding plan, and 24 engraved plates, including 8 hand-coloured. Early 19th-century green half morocco. XII, 128; [4], 120 pp. Full description

BERGMAN, Torbern Olof. Manuel du minéralogiste; ou sciagraphie du règne minéral, distribuée d'après l'analyse chimique; ... Mise aujour par M. Ferber ... et traduite et augmentée de notes par M. Mongez le Jeune. Nouvelle édition, considérablement augmentée, par J.C. Delamétherie.
Paris, Cuchet, 1792. 2 volumes. 8vo. With 2 engraved plates (1 folding). Contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spine. CXX, 359, [1 blank]; [4], 443, [1 blank] pp. Full description

BERQUEN, Robert de. Les merveilles des Indes Orientales et Occidentales, ou Nouveau traitté des pierres precieuses & perles, ...
Paris, Christophe Lambin, 1661. 4to. With an engraved portrait of Anne Marie Louise d'Orleans facing the dedication. Contemporary gold-tooled, tanned sheepskin, gold-tooled sides. [12], 112 pp. Full description

BERZELIUS, Jöhns Jacob. Nouveau système de minéralogie.
Paris, Méquignon-Marvis, 1819. 8vo. Modern marbled boards. [4], VI, 314, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

[BLONDEL, François]. Beschryving van de beroemde, en van ouds vermaarde vrye keiserlyke ryks- en krooning- stad Aken, mitsgaders van alle desselfs fonteinen en minerale wateren en baden (...) tot herstelling van veele elendige en sieke menschen hunne gesontheid.
Leiden, Johannes du Vivier, 1727. 2 works in 1 volume. 4to. Ad 1 with an engraved frontispiece, a letterpress title in red and black, 18 engraved plates (15 folding, 3 full-page), several engraved illustrations in the text. Ad 2 with an engraved title vignette, and 10 engraved folding plates by H. Spilman after Jan de Beyer. With: LANGENDIJK, Pieter. De stad Kleef, haar gezondheidsbron, en omleggende landsdouwen.
Haarlem, Jan Bosch, 1747. Early 19th-century half brown calf. [22], 223, [1 blank]; 63, [11] pp. Full description

BOODT, Anselm Boetius de. Gemmarum et lapidum historia, qua non solum ortus, natura, vis & precium, sed etiam modus quo ex iis, olea, salia tincturae, essentiae, arcana & magisteria arte chymica confici possint, ostenditur.
Hanau, Claude de Marne and heirs of Johann Aubry (printed by the heirs of Andreas Wechel), 1609. 4to. With Wechel's elaborate woodcut device on the title-page and the otherwise blank final page, 34 woodcut illustrations in the text (some with multiple figures), and 2 folding letterpress hierarchical tables. Contemporary sheepskin parchment. 8, [8], “288” [= 284], [16] pp. plus 2 folding ll. Full description

[BRINK, Carel Frederik]. Nouvelle description du Cap de Bonne-Espérance, avec un Journal historique d'un voyage de terre, . . . , dans l'intérieur de l'Afrique. . . . Sous le commandement du Capitain Mr. Henri Hop, . . .
Amsterdam, J.H. Schneider, 1778. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. Title-page with an engraved vignette by Christian Friedrich Fritzsch and 16 folding engraved plates. Olive half calf (ca. 1840), gold-tooled spine. [6], 130, [2], 100 pp. Full description

BRONGNIART, Alexandre. Traité élémentaire de minéralogie, avec des applications aux arts; ouvrage destiné a l'einseignement dans les lycées nationaux.
Paris, Crapelet; Deterville, 1807. 2 volumes. 8vo. With 16 folding engraved plates. Contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spines. XII, 564; [4], 443, [1] pp. Full description

BUFFON, Georges-Louis Leclerc de. Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du cabinet du roi. Nouvelle édition.
Dordrecht, Abraham Blussé, 1766-1799. 38 parts in 21 volumes. Large 4to. With more than 1100 hand-coloured engraved plates, 10 maps, 1 folding engraved table, and an engraved portrait of Buffon (by Houbraken, with an extra-added uncoloured portrait pasted on the verso). Contemporary, uniform half tanned sheepskin. Full description

BUFFON, Georges Louis Leclerc. Histoire naturelle, générale et particuliére . . . Supplément [Tome premier - septième].
Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1774-1782 (vols. 1-6); Dordrecht, A. Blussé and son, 1799 (vol. 7). 7 volumes. 4to. With 2 folding engraved maps and 218 plates (full-page and folding and including 2 bis), all engraved. Contemporary mottled calf, gold-tooled spine and board edges (vols. 1-6, uniform), 19th-century half calf, gold-tooled spine (vol. 7). Full description

FAUJAS DE SAINT-FOND, Barthélemy. Natuurlijke historie van den St. Pieters Berg bij Maastricht. ... Uit het Fransch door J.D. Pasteur.
Amsterdam, Johannes Allart, 1802. 8vo. With an engraved title-page with a small illustration by D. Vrijdag, a folding engraved map and folding engraved plan of the St. Pietersberg, and numerous illustrations of minerals and fossils on 52 folding engraved plates. Contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spine. VIII, [4], 340, [4] pp. Full description

FRIEDRICH AUGUST II, Johann Wolfgang von GOETHE and Karl Joseph HEIDLER. Pflanzen und Gebirgsarten von Marienbad, ... ergänzt, und mit einem anhange über die andern naturhistorischen Verhältnisse der Curortes.
Prague, Kronberger and Weber ("Druck und Papier von Gottlieb Haase Söhne"), 1837. 8vo. With 5 lithographed plates numbered I-II, [III], IV-V, namely a frontispiece view by Sandtner, 3 further illustration plates (1 hand-coloured) and a hand-coloured folding petrographic map of Marienbad. Also with a folding letterpress table. Contemporary brown half sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. X, 203, [1 blank] pp. Full description

FROMHERZ, Karl. Die Jura-Formationen des Breisgaues geognostisch beschrieben.
Karlsruhe, Christian Theodor Groos, 1838. 4to. With 2 hand-coloured lithographed geognostic maps by B. Herder, one of the Schönberg near Freiburg and one of the whole area of Breisgrau with both maps showing the different earth layers and their materials by using different colours. Contemporary marbled boards, red morocco spine label. IV, 51, [1 blank] pp. Full description

GORLAEUS, Abraham. Dactyliotheca, seu annulorum sigillarium quorum apud Priscos tam Graecos quam Romanos usus, ex ferro, aere, argento & auro promptuarii … collectis aliunde & ineditis & editis annulorum figuris auctior; cum explicationibus Jacobi Gronovii.
Leiden, Petrus van de Aa, 1695. 2 volumes. 4to. With 2 different engraved allegorical title-pages (reflecting the themes of rings and intaglio-carved gems), 2 letterpress title-pages in red and black with one of Van der Aa's engraved allegorical devices (Minerva/Athena, books, a cock and Hercules/Heracles, with motto "studio et vigilantia"), a portrait of the author by Jacques de Gheyn with a calligraphic verse by Hugo de Groot below, 138 engraved plates: 196 numbered illustrations of ancient rings with carved gems shown at actual size on 101 engraved plates, and 148 numbered illustrations of carved gems alone on 37 engraved plates). Contemporary limp vellum, manuscript title on spine. [22], 28, [16], 16 pp. plus 109 plates; 64, 32 pp. plus 173 plates. Full description

HEER, Henri de. Spadacrene hoc est Fons Spadanus, ... ut et Observationes medicae ...
Including HEER, Henri de. Observationes medicae, oppido rarae in Spa et Leodii; animadversa, cum medicamentis ...
Leiden, Pieter van der Aa, 1685. 2 works published together. 12mo. 18th-century boards. [24], 159, [17]; [6], 254, [20] pp. Full description

HENCKEL (HENKEL), Johann Friedrich. Flora saturnizans, die Verwandtschafft des Pflanzen mit dem Mineral-Reich, nach der Natural-Historie und Chymie aus vielen Anmerckungen und Proben …
Leipzig, Johann Christian Martini, 1722. 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece showing a mining operation, and 9 engraved plates. 18th-century vellum. [10], 671, [17] pp. Full description

KIRWAN, Richard. Elémens de minéralogie.
Paris, Cuchet, 1785. 8vo. With a small woodcut decoration on the title-page, some letterpress tables in text. Contemporary calf, richly gold-tooled spine with brown title-label, marbled endpapers, red edges. [4], XLVIII, 432 pp. Full description

KUNZ, George Frederick and Charles Hugh STEVENSON. The book of the pearl. The history, art, science, and industry of the queen of gems
New York, The Century Co., 1908. 4to. Colour frontispiece, 99 plates including 17 in color and one engraved, Citron crushed levant gilt, title in six compartments with five raised bands and gold tooling and gilt lettering, board edges and turn-ins gilt. [XIX], 548 pp. Full description

LEDERMÜLLER, Martin Frobenius and J.C. HARREPETER (translator). Versuch, beÿ angehender Frühlings-Zeit die Vergrößerungs Werckzeuge zum nützlich u[nd] angenehmen Zeitvertreib anzuwenden. Von dem Verfasser der Mikroskopischen Gemüths u[nd] Augen Ergözung. | Essai d'employer les instruments microscopiques avec utilité et plaisir dans la saison du printems par l'auteur des amusements microscopiques tant des yeux que de l'esprit.
Nuremberg, A.L. Wirsing, 1764. Folio. With an engraved hand-coloured title-page and 12 full-page hand-coloured engraved plates, numbered I-XII (bound VII-XII, I-VI). Contemporary blue-ish grey paper boards, with a large white paper title-label on the front board with in manuscript "Amusements Microscopiques par Harrepeter. 1764" and with the manuscript title ("Mikroscope") on the spine. 48 pp. Full description

LUCHET, Jean Pierre Louis de (= Marquis de LA ROCHE DU MAINE). Essais sur la minéralogie et la métallurgie.
Maestricht, J.E. Dufour & P. Roux, 1779. 3 parts in 1 volume. 8vo (22.5 x 13.5 cm). Contemporary decorated paper wrappers. [4], XXVII, [1], 232 pp. Full description

MARBODE of Rennes. De gemmarum lapidumq[ue] pretiosorum formis, naturis, atq[ue] viribus eruditu[m] cu[m] primis opusculu[m], ... scholiis q[uo]q[ue] illustratu[m] p[er] Alardu[m] Aemstelredamu[m].
Cologne, Hero Alopecius [Fuchs], 1539. 8vo. With a woodcut illustration on the title page, representing a Jewish priest behind a board with the names of 12 stones which represent the 12 tribes of Israel. 17th-century gold-tooled red morocco, richly gold-tooled spine with green morocco title-label, gold-tooled fillets and small cornerpieces on both boards, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt edges, marbled endpapers. 124, [2] ll. Full description

MAUGENDRE, Adolphe. Société anonyme des mines et fonderies de zinc de la Vieille Montagne[.] Album de 30 vues.
Paris, (printed by Auguste Bry), 1850-1851. Oblong 1mo (55.5 x 38.5 cm). Tinted lithographed title page and 30 tinted lithographed plates (55.5 x 38.5 cm, one slightly smaller: 35 x 50.5 cm), all in fine contemporary hand-colouring. Loose in modern clamshell box. Full description

MAZZOTTA, Benedetto. De triplici philosophia naturali, astrologica, et minerali. In quibus differit cohaerenter de elementis, & variis mixtorum proprietatibus. ... Opus theol. philos. medicis, chymicis, & astrologis jucundum, ac simul utile.
Bologna, Giovanni Bapttista Ferroni, 1653. 4to. With an engraved heraldic and allegorical frontispiece drawn and engraved by Bartolomeo Coriolano with the arms of the dedicatee Hipolyto Cattaneo, a full-page engraving (with 7 figures) on an integral leaf, and 2 engraved illustrations and 2 woodcut diagrams in the text. Contemporary boards covered with a vellum leaf from a 16th-century(?) plain-chant manuscript antiphonary. Frontispiece plus [10], [2 blank], 148, “252” [= 272] pp. Full description

[MINERAL SPRINGS – FRANCE]. [30 scientific and promotional publications on mineral springs in France].
France, 1870-1888. 30 works in 1 volume. 8vo. One work with 5 leaves with wood engraved illustrations and some others with an illustration on the title-page. Contemporary red half sheepskin, with gold fillets and title-label on spine, and the original wrappers of each work bound in. Full description

NICOLS, Thomas. Edelgestein-Büchlein, oder Beschreibung der Edelgesteine. Derer Gestalt, Kräffte und Tugenden, Eigenschafften, Preis und Werth. Samt bengefügten Warnungen für Betrug an alle diejenigen, so mit Edelsteinenen handeln und umbgehen ... Übersetzet und herausgegeben von Johann Langen.
Hamburg, Johann Naumans and Georg Wolff, 1675. 8vo. Paper covered vellum, marbled endpapers. [16], 249, [7] pp. Full description

NICOLS, Thomas. Edelgestein-Büchlein, oder Beschreibung der Edelgesteine. Derer Gestalt, Kräffte und Tugenden, Eigenschafften, Preis und Werth. Samt bengefügten Warnungen für Betrug an alle diejenigen, so mit Edelsteinenen handeln und umbgehen ... Übersetzet und herausgegeben von Johann Langen.
Hamburg, Johann Naumans and Georg Wolff, 1675. 8vo. Contemporary vellum. [16], 249, [7] pp. Full description

NICOLS, Thomas. Beschreibung der Steine sowohl Edel als Gemeine. Darinnen derer Gestalt, Kräffte, Tugenden, Medicin, Eigenschafften, Preiss und Werth auf das Deutliches gezeiget wird. Samt beygesetzten Warnungen sich fuer derer Verfaelschung wohl zu hueten wegen seiner Fuertrefflichkeit.
Culmbach, for Nathanael Lumscher, by Friedrich Elias Dietzel, 1734. 8vo. Modern beige sheepskin. 16, 274, [14] pp. Full description

PLINIUS SECUNDUS, Gaius. Naturalis historiae opus ... (Colophon: Cologne, Eucharius Cervicornus, 1524). Folio. With both the title page and part-title in a decorated woodcut border in four pieces, further with decorated woodcut initials, and woodcut head- and tailpieces. Late 16th of early 17th-century gold tooled calf, with a red morocco title label on the spine, lettered in gold. [16], 311, [60] ll. Full description

[PORTLAND MUSEUM]. [LIGHTFOOT, John]. A catalogue of the Portland Museum lately the property of the Duchess Dowager of Portland, deceased: which will be sold by auction ...
With: (2) A catalogue of a very valuable collection of cameos, intaglios, and precious stones, and other curiosities; being part of a late much celebrated cabinet, many out of the Arundel collection; which will be sold by auction ...
[London, Skinner and Co., 1786]. 2 works in 1 volume. 4to. With full-page engraved frontispiece showing the interior of the Portland Museum with numerous objects from its collection. Contemporary gold-tooled vellum. VIII, "194" [= 192]; 6 pp. Full description

RANOUW, Willem van. Kabinet der natuurlyke historien, wetenschappen, konsten en handwerken, geopent met de maanden January en February 1719. Verciert en opgeheldert met kopere plaaten.
Including: MEERSCH, Pieter van der. Register tot alle de deelen van het kabinet ... van W. v. Ranouw.
Amsterdam, Hendrik Strik; Zacharia Moelé and Johannes de Ruiter; Balthasar Lakeman, 1730; 1719-1727; 1732. 21 parts in 9 volumes. 8vo. With an identical engraved allegorical frontispiece in volumes 1-8, different woodcut vignettes on the title-pages and 49 numbered engraved maps and plates, all but one folding. Contemporary vellum, manuscript title on the spines. [16], 176, [2], 552, [8]; [4], 564, [8]; [8], 562, [6]; 570, [6]; 570; [9]; [8], 176, [2], 191-380, [2], 563, [6]; [8], 183, [1], 1-192, 1-192, [8]; [16], 176, 1-191, [1], [20], 1-151, [1]; [12], 690 pp. Full description

ROEMER, Friedrich Adolph. Die Versteinerungen des Norddeutschen Oolithen-Gebirges.
Hanover, Hahn, (colophon: printed by Jänecke brothers), 1836. Large 4to (32.5 x 26 cm). With 16 lithographed plates. Original publisher's printed boards. [3], [1 blank], [2], 218 pp. Full description

ROMÉ DE L'ISLE (DELISLE), Jean-Baptiste Louis. Essai de cristallographie, ou description des figures géométriques, propres à differens corps du regne minéral, connus vulgairement sous le nom de cristaux.
Paris, Didot, Knapen & Delaguette, 1772. 8vo. With 2 folding letterpress tables and 10 folding engraved plates. Contemporary mottled calf, gold-tooled spine. XXXII, 427, 2, [1 blank] pp. Full description

[ROSNEL, Pierre de]. Le mercure indien, ou, Le tresor des Indes.
Paris, Robert Chevillon, 1667. Small 8vo. With an engraved coat of arms on the title pages. Later vellum. [16], 64; [16], 176 pp. Full description

RYAN, William Redmond. Avonturen gedurende een tweejarig verblijf in Californië en zijne mijnen.
Haarlem, A.C. Kruseman, 1850. 2 volumes bound as 1. 8vo. With two lithographed title pages and 20 lithographed illustrations on 10 plates, all drawn by Carel Christiaan Anthony Last after the author. Modern half cloth. [2], 308; VIII, 325 pp. Full description

SAGE, Balthazar-Georges. Description méthodique du Cabinet de l'École Royale des Mines.
Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1784. 8vo. Contemporary half calf, paste paper sides. XVI, 487, [1 blank], XI, [1 blank] pp. Full description

SCHUL[T]ZE, Heinrich. Der Gold- & Silberarbeiter und Juwelier nach allen seinen praktischen Verrichtungen. Ein vollständiges Handbuch dieses Gewerbes...
Ilmenau, B.F Voigt, 1823. 8vo. With 8 tables on separate leaves (6 on 3 folding plates bound at the end of the book), 109 tables in the text and 4 lithographed folding illustration plates signed by Uckermann. Contemporary marbled paper over boards, gold-tooled spine with light brown label. XII, 340, [4] pp. Full description

THOMSON, Alexander. Dissertationes medicae. I. De motu, quo renituntur canals, in fluida corporis animalis. II. De aquarum mineralium examine, & origine. III. De martis, & aquarum mineralium. IV. De mercurii. V. De opii. VI. De morbis animi. Introductio exhibet ideam progressus medicinae, hodiernum ejus statum, & quemobrem, à detecto sanguinis circuitu, ars hactenus fere inexculta subsistat.
Leiden, Frederik Haring, 1705. 8vo. With a woodcut title vignette and woodcut initials. Contemporary calf, title in gold on spine. 155 pp. Full description

VALMONT DE BOMARE, Jacques-Christophe. Mineralogie, ou nouvelle exposition du regne minéral. ... Avec un dictionnaire nomenclateur et des tables synoptiques.
Paris, Vincent, 1762. 2 volumes. 8vo. With 11 folding letterpress tables. Contemporary marbled calf, gold-tooled spines. [2], XIV, [2], 365, [1 blank], [1], [1 blank]; [2, 374, [2], 6 pp. Full description

WARIUS, Pieter. Nieuwe verklaring over de proportionaal passer, waar in aangewesen word, hoe dezelve is te tekenen, en hoe tafeltjes daar toe dienende konnen werden berekent, vervolgens der zelver veelvuldig en nuttig gebruyk, zoo in de tel- als meetkonst; ...
Amsterdam, Joannes Loots, 1708. 4to. With a large folding engraved plate illustrating the scales on the sector and 12 smaller folding engraved plates showcasing several of the calculations. Contemporary calf, gold-tooled spine. [4], 72 pp. Full description