Description
The Pirotechnia, art and technique of fire is the first book printed on metallurgy, applied chemistry, manufacture of gunpowder, guns, bells, glass, etc. Biringuccio, director of the arsenal of the papal armies, offers us in this work the first printed jewel in the history of technology.
From pirotechnia, Tuscan treatise written by the S. Vannuccio Biringuccio, was published in Venice in 1540 commissioned by Curtius di Navo three years after the death of its author. Due to its success, the same editor performs a second edition in 1550 and a third in 1559, also in Venice, with some changes, including the title, which simplifies Pirotechnia, understood as the “art of fire” and that It will remain in the multitude of later editions and translations.
Pirotechnia is the first treaty of mining and metallurgy edited in the world, making it one of the printed technical firsts. The author reflects the thinking of previous centuries, and shaping their personal experiences and knowledge, which exposes processes described in detail with new technological principles, thereby changing the traditional system of transmission of knowledge, which goes from the master craftsman made in person to spread by means of a text put up for sale.
This was one of the reasons for its success among scholars, scientists and technicians of his time, reaching four editions published in less than 20 years and various translations into European languages. However, we must stress that it was never printed a version in Spanish, although the book is in the personal libraries of Spanish intellectuals of the sixteenth century.
This facsimile edition is a faithful reproduction of the most unique copy of Pirotechnia of those preserved in the Royal Library at El Escorial. 17 x 21.8 cm format. The original work belongs to the second edition printed in Venice in 1550 by Giovan Padoano under custom Curtius di Navo. Form a volume in-room VIII + 167 pages (334 pages) containing 84 woodblock prints, plus Emblem editor as a bullet at the end. Its format, structure, prints and capital letters are the same as the 1540 edition prince.
Binding plateresca in greenish gray and brown sugar tables embossed calf. Loin fillets dry. Two sets of intersecting triples fillets in the corners and a press medallions and vegetal fretwork with Greyhound and Rabbit. In the corners of twigs with semicircular fillet center, and the center between the H and J initials, a shield surrounded by a plant polilobulado phylactery. The book was purchased, among others, by auction by express mandate of Felipe II in 1567, the year after the death of the bishop of Osma not have any Pirotechnia the Library of the Monastery of El Escorial. The book joins the Laurentian respecting the original binding adding escurialense grill and golden court.
Join a book study and translation of the work for the first time the Spanish, so you can say that this is a first edition in Spanish, with the collaboration of the Superior Council of Associations of Mining Engineers and dedicated to SAR Prince of Asturias, Felipe de Borbon y Grecia.
Both books are presented in a stylish case overall of 22.3 x 34 x 10.3 cm. Total weight: 4.569 gr.
Shipping by the buyer, upon request and destination. Ask us any questions and facsimile or any other item he seeks.
