BACCI, Andrea.

De Gemmis et Lapidibus pretiosis, eorumque viribus & usu tractatus, Italica lingua conscriptus nunc vero non solum in Latinum sermonem conversus, verum etiam...annotationibus & observationibus auctior redditus, a Wolfgango Gabelchovero...Cui accessit disputatio, de generatione auri in locis subterraneis, illiusque temperamento.

231, [21] pp., one leaf of errata, one blank leaf. 8vo, attractive antique calf, gilt device in center of each cover. Frankfurt: M. Becker, 1603. First edition in Latin (1st ed., in Italian: 1587), of this important treatise on gems, translated with the valuable notes and additions by Wolfgang Gabelchover (b. ca. 1570), physician to the court of Württemberg, philologist, and natural historian. Gabelchover’s extensive commentaries practically reshaped the work into his own. Bacci (1524-1600), taught botany and pharmacology at Rome and was physician to Pope Sixtus V. “Most of Bacci’s material is a synthesis of other writings taken from the authors listed on p. 7-12. Much factual information is provided but it is interlarded with curious lore and superstition.”–Sinkankas 281. “Of chemical interest are discussions of the generation and transmutation of gold and of the tricks and deceptions of contemporary alchemists, who sold worthless synthetic ‘gems’ to the public.”–Neville, I, pp. 54-55. Appended at the end is a letter from Johann Lang on gold and silver. Fine copy. Old stamp of the Augustiner Convent at Münnerstadt on title. ❧ Adams, The Birth and Development of the Geological Sciences, pp. 84 & 161. Hoover 71. Thorndike, VI, pp. 315-16.

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• продавец: Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller, Inc. (USA)