Science & Technology / Mineralogy & Gems

BOODT, Anselm Boetius de. Gemmarum et lapidum historia, qua non solum ortus, natura, vis & precium, sed etiam modus quo ex iis, olea, salia tincturae, essentiae, arcana & magisteria arte chymica confici possint, ostenditur.
Hanau, Claude de Marne and heirs of Johann Aubry (printed by the heirs of Andreas Wechel), 1609. 4to. With Wechel's elaborate woodcut device on the title-page and the otherwise blank final page, 34 woodcut illustrations in the text (some with multiple figures), and 2 folding letterpress hierarchical tables. Contemporary sheepskin parchment. 8, [8], “288” [= 284], [16] pp. plus 2 folding ll. Full description

[BRINK, Carel Frederik]. Nouvelle description du Cap de Bonne-Espérance, avec un Journal historique d'un voyage de terre, . . . , dans l'intérieur de l'Afrique. . . . Sous le commandement du Capitain Mr. Henri Hop, . . .
Amsterdam, J.H. Schneider, 1778. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. Title-page with an engraved vignette by Christian Friedrich Fritzsch and 16 folding engraved plates. Olive half calf (ca. 1840), gold-tooled spine. [6], 130, [2], 100 pp. Full description

BRONGNIART, Alexandre. Traité élémentaire de minéralogie, avec des applications aux arts; ouvrage destiné a l'einseignement dans les lycées nationaux.
Paris, Crapelet; Deterville, 1807. 2 volumes. 8vo. With 16 folding engraved plates. Contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spines. XII, 564; [4], 443, [1] pp. Full description

BUFFON, Georges-Louis Leclerc de. Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du cabinet du roi. Nouvelle édition.
Dordrecht, Abraham Blussé, 1766-1799. 38 parts in 21 volumes. Large 4to. With more than 1100 hand-coloured engraved plates, 10 maps, 1 folding engraved table, and an engraved portrait of Buffon (by Houbraken, with an extra-added uncoloured portrait pasted on the verso). Contemporary, uniform half tanned sheepskin. Full description

BUFFON, Georges Louis Leclerc. Histoire naturelle, générale et particuliére . . . Supplément [Tome premier - septième].
Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1774-1782 (vols. 1-6); Dordrecht, A. Blussé and son, 1799 (vol. 7). 7 volumes. 4to. With 2 folding engraved maps and 218 plates (full-page and folding and including 2 bis), all engraved. Contemporary mottled calf, gold-tooled spine and board edges (vols. 1-6, uniform), 19th-century half calf, gold-tooled spine (vol. 7). Full description

BURTIN, François-Xavier. Oryctographie de Bruxelles ou description des fossiles tant naturels qu'accidentels découverts jusqu'à ce jour dans les environs de cette ville.
[Brussels], Le Maire, 1784. Folio (46 x 28 cm). With engraved title-page by Pris after M.J. Speeckaert, and 32 engraved plates printed in brown and coloured by a contemporary hand. 19th-century half sheepskin (roan). [2], 152 pp. Full description

COMSTOCK, John Lee. Elements of mineralogy, adapted to the use of seminaries and private students.
Boston, S.G. Goodrich, 1827. Large 8vo. With numerous wood engraved figures in text. Contemporary brown half cloth. LXXVII, 338, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

FRIEDRICH AUGUST II, Johann Wolfgang von GOETHE and Karl Joseph HEIDLER. Pflanzen und Gebirgsarten von Marienbad, ... ergänzt, und mit einem anhange über die andern naturhistorischen Verhältnisse der Curortes.
Prague, Kronberger and Weber ("Druck und Papier von Gottlieb Haase Söhne"), 1837. 8vo. With 5 lithographed plates numbered I-II, [III], IV-V, namely a frontispiece view by Sandtner, 3 further illustration plates (1 hand-coloured) and a hand-coloured folding petrographic map of Marienbad. Also with a folding letterpress table. Contemporary brown half sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. X, 203, [1 blank] pp. Full description

FROMHERZ, Karl. Die Jura-Formationen des Breisgaues geognostisch beschrieben.
Karlsruhe, Christian Theodor Groos, 1838. 4to. With 2 hand-coloured lithographed geognostic maps by B. Herder, one of the Schönberg near Freiburg and one of the whole area of Breisgrau with both maps showing the different earth layers and their materials by using different colours. Contemporary marbled boards, red morocco spine label. IV, 51, [1 blank] pp. Full description

GORLAEUS, Abraham. Dactyliotheca, seu annulorum sigillarium quorum apud Priscos tam Graecos quam Romanos usus, ex ferro, aere, argento & auro promptuarii ... collectis aliunde & ineditis & editis annulorum figuris auctior; cum explicationibus Jacobi Gronovii.
Leiden, Petrus van de Aa, 1695. 2 volumes. 4to. With 2 different engraved allegorical title-pages (reflecting the themes of rings and intaglio-carved gems), 2 letterpress title-pages in red and black with one of Van der Aas engraved allegorical devices (Minerva/Athena, books, a cock and Hercules/Heracles, with motto "studio et vigilantia"), a portrait of the author by Jacques de Gheyn with a calligraphic verse by Hugo de Groot below, 138 engraved plates: 196 numbered illustrations of ancient rings with carved gems shown at actual size on 101 engraved plates, and 148 numbered illustrations of carved gems alone on 37 engraved plates). Contemporary limp vellum, manuscript title on spine. [22], 28, [16], 16 pp. plus 109 plates; 64, 32 pp. plus 173 plates. Full description