Title: De l'Art de la Verrerie. Où l'on apprend à faire le Verre, le Cristal, & l'Email. La
maniere de faire les Perles, les Pierres précieuses, la Porcelaine, & les Mirroirs. La Méthode de
peindre sur le Verre & en Email. De tirer les couleurs des Métaux, Mineraux, Herbes et Fleurs.
Ouvrage rempli de plusieurs Secrets & Curiositez, inconnuës jusqu'à present.

Publication: See full description

Reference No:   MU-RBL00042

Book Description

Paris, Jean Jombert, 1697. With illustrations of tools and furnaces on 8 engraved plates.
Contemporary vellum.

Besterman, Old Art Books, 47; Duveen 281; Ferguson I, 367; not in NUC.
First edition on a famous work on the art of the manufacturing of glass, crystal, and enamel, the
making of perls, precious stones, and porcelain, as well as on painting on glass and enamel, and
the manufacturing of colours from metals, minerals, herbs, and flowers. Mainly based on Neri's
L'Arte Vitraria , it is full of secret recipes and curiosities. The present book is the outcome
of his passion for chemistry and alchemy. A new edition of the L'Art de la Verrerie was published
at Paris in 1718, and a translation in English, The Art of Glass, was published at London in
1699.

Title: Dell'historia naturale libri xxvii.

Publication: Napoli,Costantino Vitale1599

Reference No: MU-RBL00048

Book Description

Folio.( 24 ),791 pp,1b,and a folding woodcut double plate depicting the interior of the
museum.Device of a crocodile on t.p.,and 73 woodcut illustrations in text,49 of wich are full
page,depicting insects,minerals,plants,gems and reptiles.

First edition.It is divided into 28 books,5 devoted to minerals and stones,9 to alchemy,14 to
plants and animals. It was edited by his son Francesco,and describes on the most famous european
natural museums of the 16th century,and represents the first museological catalogue to cover all
aspects of the natural world.His scientific observations in stratigraphy and paleontology
predated Steno's work by seventy years.Adams,I,84-Sinkankas, 3108: "Not seen",and 3109 for the
second edition of 1671:"The considerable text devoted to minerals,earths,and gemstones,makes this
work of great interest to the earth scientist,while the gemologist will find much valuable
information…".Wilson,Mineral collecting,36-Wood,Vertebrate zoology,398:"The first edition of an
important work on natural history".It contains the first description,illustrated,of the
preparation and use of asbestos.

Title: Historia Naturale... nella quale ordinatamente si tratta della diversa condition di
Minere, Pietre pretiose, & altre curiosita. Con varie Historie di Piante, & Animali, sin'

Publication: See full description

Reference No:   MU-RBL00045

Book Description

hora non date in luce... Venice, Combi and La Noù, 1672. Folio (350 x 243mm). pp. (viii), 696,
(8), title in red and black with large engraved vignette, double-page engraved plate showing the
interior of Imperato's museum, and 126 woodcuts in the text. Contemporary publisher's boards
(spine gone). An uncut large-paper copy of the second edition (first 1599) of this beautiful
catalogue of the 'Museo' of the Neapolitan apothecary Ferrante Imperato (1550-1625) and his son
Francesco. This edition was prepared by Giovanni Maria Ferro who added new material and also new
illustrations to the final chapter. Imperato's collection of natural history specimens was one of
the earliest of its kind in Italy and the catalogue was the first to contain both plants and
animals. "The museum of Ferrante and Francesco Imperato of Naples was as famous as Calceolari's
and in Ferrante's 'Historia Naturale', ... several pages are devoted to molluscs and some of the
shells illustrated are easily indentifiable" (Dance pp. 15-16). "The catalogue is divided in 28
books with substantial sections on mining (5 books) and alchemy (9 books), the remainder being
devoted to animals and vegetable specimens. Ferrante Imperato took a scientific interest in his
collection and was one of the first people to recognise the mysterious 'bronteae' and 'ombriae'
as meteoric stones and proved that 'Jew stones', a popular 'Wunderkammer' specimen, were in fact
the pertified points of an 'echinus'. In G.M. Ferro's addenda to the catalogue is an interesting
description and illustration of red and black indian ink in a Chinese ink bottle and decorated
vase (p. 677)" (Grinke, From Wunderkammer to museum n. 22). Besides Ferro's added illustrations
and text, the second edition differs in having an engraved view of the museum interior, whereas
in the first edition the scene is represented in a much cruder woodcut. The vignette on the title
depicts hills, the shore, and the sea with a variety of plants, sea and land creatures, and
minerals arising under the astral influence rained down from the heavens, with the motto 'ab
uno'. Cobres I, p. 165 n. 16; Hunt 321; Murray I, p. 85.; Nissen BBI, 2111.