ERCKER, Lazarus.

Aula Subterranea Domina dominantium Subdita subditorum. Das ist, Untererdische Hofhaltung, ohne welche weder die Herren regieren, noch die Unterthanen gehorchen können. Oder Gründliche Beschreibung der jenigen Sachen, so in der Tieffe der Erden wachsen, als aller Ertzen der Königlichen und gemeinen Metallen, auch fürnehmster Mineralien, durch welche nächst Gott, alle Künste, Ubungen und Stände der Welt gehandhabet und erhalten werden...

Engraved title (a little wormed in lower inner corner, just barely touching the image), woodcut printer’s device on title, & 38 large woodcuts in the text. 8 p.l. (incl. engraved title, last leaf a blank), 332, [4] pp.; 2 p.l., 47 pp. Two parts in one vol. Small folio, cont. vellum MS. over boards (quite browned throughout, some mostly marginal worming). Frankfurt: J.D. Zunner, 1672 [engraved title dated 1673]. Fifth edition of this finely illustrated technological work; the first edition, issued in 1574 in Prague, is an extremely rare book. The present edition is the first “to contain the important annotations and Interpres phraseologiae metalllurgicae (glossary of mining terms) of Christian Berward, separately paginated with its own title page dated 1673...This is the first edition to appear with the title Aula Subterranea.”–Neville, I, pp. 421-22. This is the first manual of analytical and metallurgical chemistry. Ercker (ca.1530-94), held various mining posts at Dresden, Goslar in the Tyrol, Prague, and elsewhere during a twenty year period. Because of these positions, Ercker acquired extensive experience in chemistry and metallurgy. The present work — the author’s magnum opus — offers “a systematic review of the methods of testing alloys and minerals of silver, gold, copper, antimony, mercury, bismuth, and lead; of obtaining and refining these metals, as well as of obtaining acids, salts, and other compounds. The last chapter is devoted to saltpeter. Ercker described laboratory procedures and equipment, gave an account of preparing the cupel, of constructing furnaces, and of the assaying balance and the method of operating it. He used as his model Agricola’s De re metallica, yet he was quite original and included only the procedures he himself had tested. Ercker was so hostile to alchemy that he did not use alchemical symbols...”–D.S.B., IV, p. 393. Good copy but quite browned. ❧ Hoover 283. Sisco & Smith, p. 330.

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