[Rarebooks] FS: Important 1773 Book on Diamonds

[Joslin Hall Rare Books]

"Abhandlung von Edelsteinen. Zweyte Verbesserte und Vermehrte Auflage"

By Urban Friedrich [Benedict] Bruckmann. Printed in Braunschweig by Verlag
dur Furst. Waysenhaus-Buchhandlung in 1773. 2nd (enlarged) edition.

Bruckmann [1723-1812] was the court physician to the Duke of Brunswick, a
professor of anatomy, a mineralogist, gemologist, and prolific writer. Of
the first edition of this important book, first published in 1757,
Sinkankas ("Gemology, An Annotated Bibliography") says, “it is not a
formal gemological treatise but rather the record of his personal
observations on gemstones in which are incorporated numerous quotations
and citations of the opinions of others...as such, it provides an
invaluable ‘status report’ on gemological knowledge at the time”.

This, the second, 1773 edition, was greatly enlarged, and reflected the
information gathered in the 16 intervening years during which Bruckmann
had been corresponding with other European gemologists and visiting
important collections. It also features a “most valuable appendix
concerning the ‘largely unknown so-called gemstones’ of older writers,
becoming, in effect, a glossary of same as employed by Pliny and Boetius
De Boodt, among others. This glossary is unique and deserves to be
translated...there are hundreds of terms, and I know of no other place in
the literature where a similar glossary of ancient
gemological/mineralogical terms exists” (Sinkankas).

A major and important work, now uncommon. Sinkankas 975.

Hardcover. 5”x8”, 415 pages, decorated title page, woodcut headpiece and
tailpiece. Bound in early 19th century speckled boards. Spine rubbed, a
very small amount of very light internal spotting on a few pages,
otherwise a fine, wide-margined copy. At one time part of the noted
collection of gem dealer and gemstone-reference collector Henry Polissack,
with his label on the front pastedown.   $3,750.00

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