Fleta Minor. The Laws of Art and Nature, in Knowing, Judging, Assaying, Fining, Refining and Inlarging the Bodies of confin'd Metals.

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A landmark English translation of Lazarus Ercker's metallurgical treatise, expanded by Sir John Pettus. Uncommon. VG, 1st ed, 1683, 43 Sculptures. Two parts bound as 1, re-spined (to style), raised bands, blind tooling, gilt title to red morocco label, over contemporary calf boards, tips repaired. Internally, [12], [4] preface, [18], [9], [1] errata, 345 pp, [1]. [2], A2-Z, 81-133 pp, 43 (of 44) copper-engraved illustrations, lacks the portrait frontis, 173 ornate initial letters, bookplate to fpd (Arthur Dalrymple), occasional light spotting and edge browning, text block edges sprinkled red. (352*217 mm). (ESTC R5570. Ferguson I, pp.185-186; Wellcome II, p.527; Wing P1906; cf. Hoover 633). The first part is the first edition in English of Lazarus Ercker's 1574 treatise on ores. The second part is a dictionary of metallurgical terms compiled by Pettus. Having spent more than £20,000 on the royalist cause during the Civil War, Pettus appears to have been imprisoned for debt several times in later life, and it has been suggested that Fleta Minor was composed in Fleet Prison. Title continues: in two parts : the first contains assays of Lazarus Erckern, chief prover, or assay-master general of the empire of Germany, in V. books, originally written by him in the Teutonick language and now translated into English ; the second contains essays on metallick words, as a dictionary to many pleasing discourses, by Sir John Pettus ... ; One of the earliest comprehensive manuals on metallurgy available in English, bridging alchemy and modern chemistry.