[Rarebooks] FS: Monumental work on the mineral & fossil collection of Pope Sixtus V

[karmbooks at aol.com]

(GEOLOGY) Mercati, Michaelis. METALLOTHECA. Opus Posthumum, Auctoritate, & Munificentiae Clementis Undecimi Pontificis Maximi E' Tenebris in Lucem Eductum; Opera Autem, & Studio Joannis Mariae Lancisii... Illustratum. Cui Accessit Appendix cum XIX. Recens Inventis Iconibus. Rome: Apud Jo: Mariam Salvoni... 1719. Folio (15-3/8" x 10-1/2"). 2 parts in 1, each with its own title page. (8),(xiii)-lxiv,378,(18);54pp. Index. Complete. Title pages printed in red & black, each with a copper engraved vignette. Illustrated with a copper engraved frontispiece, as well as a portrait of Mercati, 2 double-page plates, 4 full-page plates, approximately 150 text engravings, and engraved initials and a tail-piece. Complete. Cont. vellum, a bit soiled, gilt printed spine label. Front pastedown with the copper engraved bookplate of famed toxicologist Louis Marie Victor Galippe, with his portrait. A few leaves lightly browned, otherwise a fine, clean copy.	$7,500.00 (trade discount allowed)
Mercati's (1541-1593) monumental work on mineralogy, in the second issue (the 1719 imprint), which contains the new APPENDIX not found in the 1717 edition. In this work the colophon is dated 1717, but the new title-page and "Appendix" are both dated 1719. This mineral collection had been gathered together by Pope Sixtus V (1520-1590), and is described and excellently figured by Mercati – who failed to recognize the organic origin of the fossils it contained, attributing their shapes to the influence of celestial bodies. Geike, FOUNDERS OF GEOLOGY, p. 52. Graesse III, 493. Brunet III, 1643.


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