The Pirotechnia Of Vannoccio Biringuccio

4to xxvi, 477 pp, frontis: facsimile title page of First Edition (1540), foreword, introduction, list of 84 b&w illustrations, De La Pirotechnia: I. Every Kind of Mineral, In General; II. The Semiminerals; III. Assaying and Preparing Ores for Smelting; IV. The Separation of Gold from Silver; V. The Alloys That Are Formed between Metals; VI. The Art of Casting in General and Particular; VII. Methods of Melting Metals; VIII. The Small Art of Casting; IX. The Procedure of Various Works of Fire; X. On Certain Artificial Combustible Materials, and the Procedures Followed in Making Fireworks to Be Used in Warfare and for Festivals; Appendix: Figures from other Sources Illustrative of Biringuccio's Descriptions; index. Translated from the Italian with an introduction by Cyril Stanley Smith & Martha Teach Gnudi. The Seeley W. Mudd Series: Reprinted, 1943. Brown cloth with cream-colored backstrip, and a brown cloth title plate with gilt lettering to spine. "Vannoccio Biringuccio (c.1480- c.1539), was an Italian metallurgist. He is best known for his manual on metalworking, De la pirotechnia, published posthumously in 1540. Biringuccio is considered by some as the father of the foundry industry, and gives details of mining practice, the extraction and refining of numerous metals, alloys such as brass, and compounds used in foundries and explosives. The work is one of earliest technical manuscripts to survive from the Renaissance, and is thus a valuable source of information on technical practice at the time of writing. The work was printed in 1540 in Venice, and has been reprinted numerous times. It preceded the printing of De re metallica by Georgius Agricola by 14 years."