Folio, 2 engr. front., portrait of Clementi, portrait of M. Mercatus, 2 titles with vignet, lxiv, 378, 14 (index), 1 (errata), 1 (regestum); 54 (appendix) p., 5 engravings (2 folding) and 160 engr. in text, some browning and cont. notes in the margins. Cont. full calf binding (some rubbing). Good copy
A landmark treatise in the history of mineralogy and metallurgy. Mercati was personal physician to Popes Gregory XIII and Clement VIII, and superintendent of the Vatican Botanical Garden. He formed one of the first organised collections of minerals under the aegis of Pope Sixtus V. 'The collection reflects the state of knowledge extant at the time, and therefore includes objects of presumed magical or medicinal virtue as well as those which are correctly identified and described' (Sinkankas). Ref. Hirsch IV, 208. Cicognara 2929. Graesse IV, 493. Brunet III, 1644. Cobres I, 107-08, 20.
