(Probier Büchlein) | "Of the utmost rarity" (Duveen)

(Probier Büchlein)

Probir Büchlin, auff Goldt, Silber, alle Ertz und Metall. Mit vil kostbarlichen Alchimeijschen Künsten. Sampt allem zugehör und Instrumenten darzu dienlich. Die Bergknamen, für die newen angonde Bergkleut. Register such am end. Strassaburg:

Christian Egenolph, 1530

8vo (133 x 86 mm). Four woodcut diagrams on title, a few small diagrams in-text; B3 and B6 printed askew with text shaved. Modern stiff vellum. Folding chemise and card slipcase.

The second edition, considered by Duveen to be" of the utmost rarity."

"The Probierbüchlein is a treatise very important for the history of the development of mineral chemistry. Early manuscripts contained much detailed and accurate information concerning the methods of separating gold and silver from other metals and from one another by so-called cementation processes as well as information concerning the preparation and use of the strong mineral acids in the treatment of metals and ores. [...] This is the first printed work on assaying, and it displays the art already full-grown, so far as concerns gold and silver, and to some extent copper and lead. It publishes technical details much as they are still practiced in the assayer's office today. However, the random collection of procedures given suggests that the original manuscript was produced by a working assayer who collected together useful snippets of information rather than a coherent discussion of the subject" (Schuh).

REFERENCES

Duveen 485; Curtis Schuh, The Mineralogical Record (https://mineralogicalrecord.com/new_biobibliography/probier-b252chlein/: accessed 15 November 2025); this edition not in Darmstaedter, Ferguson, or Hoover

PROVENANCE

Joseph A. Freilich (booklabel; Sotheby's New York, 10 January 2001, lot 441)