First edition, second issue, ours complete with the two leaf index and errata at the end of one of the earliest 16th century treatises on mineralogy and precious stones. It is rare in libraries outside Germany, OCLC records only Columbia and Illinois in the US, none in the UK, and in commerce, RBH lists no copies sold at auction since 1973.
As noted in the Mineralogical Record “It is a different type of lapidary, with its arrangement of gems and minerals according to colour rather than the typical alphabetical sequence”.
The four classes are white, green, red and blue or black, and are classified thus: I. De gemmis candidis, including diamond, rock crystal, iris, ceraunia & astroite, pederote, asteria, achate, draconite, allectorio, and margaritis. II. De gemmis viridibus, including smaragdo (emerald), beryllis, chrysoprasio, topatio, callaide, prasio, heliotropio, jaspide. III. De gemmis rubeis, including carbunculorum generibus, amthysto, hyacintho, sarda, sardonyce, anyce, hematite, corallio, hephesite, chrysolito, electro, and opalo. IV. Gemmis coeruleis & nigris, including cyaneo, saphiro, calaide & ceraunia, de moris gemmis, de gemmis ad ectypam, etc.
Erasmus Stella (1460-1521), born Johannes Stüler (1460–1521) was a German physician, historian and mayor of Zwickau. He travelled to Italy and studied under Giovanni Garzoni (1419–1505) at the University of Bologna.
Provenance: 1. From the library of Georg Franz Burkhard Kloss, M.D. (1787-1854), with his engraved exlibris to the front pastedown. A doctor and incunabulist, his extensive collection of early printed books was famously sold at Sotheby’s in 1835: “the sale catalogue was written by Samuel Leigh Sotheby and listed 4623 books, most of them printed before 1537. It emphasised the hundreds of annotations he believed to have been made by the humanist Phillipp Melanchthon present in the manuscripts and books owned by Kloss. However, Kloss only associated three of the items in his collection with Melanchthon, and took a strong stand against what he saw as Samuel Leigh Sotheby’s excessive claims.” The present volume was lot 3428, described as ‘Melanchthon’s copy, with interlineations and notes’. 2. Lewis H. Machen (1790-1863) bibliophile and Senate clerk who, along with his colleague Tobias Simpson, rescued Senate records when the British attacked Washington and set fire to the Capitol in 1814; his pencilled note to verso of rear endpaper “bought by L.H.M at Hyatt sale, Washington, Feb. 1838 for $1.00”.
VD16 S9794 (Identical in setting to VD16 S 9793 up to leaf 22 (E6). This is followed by a half-sheet F2 containing an “Index Gemmarum” and errata). Sinkankas, Gemology no. 6331.
