BARBA, Albaro Alonso; Arte de los Metales en que se enseña el verdadero beneficio de los de oro, y plata por açogue. El Modo de fundirolos Todos, y como se han de refinar, y apartar unos de otros. Madrid Imprenta del Reyno 1640
In-4 de 4 ff.n.ch., 120 ff.ch.; vélin de l'époque, traces de liens.
Palau 23622 “muy rara”; Partington, II, pp. 39-40 “he gave a detailed account of the ores and minerals of South America in his book. . . The work was kept secret in Spain”; cf. Duveen, 42, Ferguson I, 70 et Caillet, 706 pour les trad. anglaise et française. Edition originale rarissime. “In 1588, Barba (1569-ca. 1640), was sent by the Church to Peru... El Arte was the first significant treatise on metals to be written in Spanish and is the only seventeenth-century treatise that was largely original... It went through approximately thirty editions in Spanish, English, German, and French... Barba excelled in his account of the treatment of silver ores by amalgamation, using processes that he himself had discovered and that were in large measure responsible for the wealth of the province... Barba was one of the first writers to advocate what amounts to a laboratory control of an entire plant process as well as the computation of all costs (including fuel, mercury, additives, depreciation of equipment, and labor) before undertaking an operation. He describes the local pre-Columbian smelting practice, and the use of the reverberatory furnace for smelting considerably before its widespread adoption.”DSB, I, p. 448. Illustré de figures gravées sur bois dans le texte. Très bel exemplaire (une rousseur en tête des trois premiers feuillets) de cet ouvrage d'une rareté proverbiale : Palau ne cite qu'un exemplaire incomplet en 1921; les deux seuls exemplaires passés sur le marché plus récemment étaient en fort mauvais état (Vente Honeyman en 1978 et vente Freilich en 2001).
Euro40000
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