BIRINGUCCIO, VANOCCIO.

La Pyrothecnie, ov Art dv Fev, contenant dix Livres. Avs Qvels est amplement traicté de toutes sortes & diuersité de minieres, fusions & separations de metaux: des formes & moules pour ietter artilleries, cloches & toutes autres figures: distillations, des mines (etc. etc.)

A Rouen, Iacques Cailloüe, 1627. 4to. Cont. full vellum. Spine w. a gilt green title-label. Title-page lightly browned and with a small rubberstamp. A few marginal dampstains. One leaf repaired in a corner. A fine, well preserved copy (4), (456), (4) pp. Having 84 large woodcut-illustrations in the text (each ab. 1/3 page large), showing apparatus and equipment for chemistry, mining, fireworks, metallurgy etc.

Fourth French edition of this much-quoted work, mainly dealing with metallurgy (as the title in 16th-century Italian meant metallurgy) and all sorts of combustible materials, including fireworks e.g.: chapter IX, The Manner of compounding various incendiary compositions which are commonly called fireworks, chapter X, Methods of preparing fireworks called Girondoles, which were once customarily used in some Tuscan cities for magnificent displays for public Festivities on Solomon Feast Days.
"Biringuccio's reputation derives from a single work, his Pirotechnica, published in 1540...As the first comprehensive account of the fire-using arts to be printed, the Pirotechnica is a prime source of many practical aspects of inorganic chemistry. Biringuccio emphasizes the adaptation of minerals and metals to use - their alloying, working, and especially the art of casting, of which he writes in great detail. The Pirotechnia contains eighty three woodcuts, the most useful being those depicting furnaces for distillation, bellows, mechanisms, and devices for boring cannon and drawing wire." (DBS II:142). - Chris Philip. A Bibliography of Firework Books. B 110.

Order-nr.: 26606