1719 "Appendix ad Metallothecam Vaticanam" of Michele Mercati
Item Details
A first edition folio of Michele Mercati’s posthumously published work Appendix ad Metallothecam Vaticanam the appendix to the Metallotheca. Published in 1719 at the Archigymnasio Sapientiae (‘College of Wisdom’) in Rome, this is the first edition of the Appendix, published to supplement the primary text which was published two years earlier in 1717. A new title page for the primary work, Metallotheca, dated 1719 was issued with the Appendix and is included here, preceding the title page for the Appendix itself. This copy is elegantly bound in a fine 20th-century quarter leather by The Ohio Bookstore and is housed in a protective leather and linen clamshell case. 2°: π 1 A-G 4 (lacks G4, blank?) ; 28 leaves; [ 1 ]-53.
Michele Mercati (1541-1593) was the keeper of the Vatican botanical gardens and a collector of minerals in the 16th century. His Metallotheca is a treatise in Latin on minerals and related topics, including numerous plate illustrations of shells, corals, and stone sculptures. Mercati’s manuscript was preserved and eventually passed to Pope Clement XI (1649-1721, reign 1700-1721) who commissioned Giovanni Maria Lancisi (1654-1720) to publish Mercati’s magnum opus. Lancisi, a noted physician and epidemiologist of the era, was assisted by Petrus Assalti who helped to edit the notes. By the time Mercati’s work was originally published in 1717, the fields of geology and mineralogy had advanced to the point that the Metallotheca was only of historic interest to 18th-century readers.
| Number of Books | single |
Condition
- re-bound; some paper discoloration consistent with age; period handwriting on title page.
Dimensions
Item #
16CIN601-335
Additional Information
