Henckel, Johann Friedrich; Pyritologie, ou Historie Naturelle De La Pyrite, Ouvrage Dans Lequel On Examine l'origine, la nature, les propriétés & les usages de ce Minéral important, & de la plûpart des autres Substances du même Regne: le Flora Saturnisans, Où l'Auteur Démontre Alliance qui se trouve entre les Végétaux et les Minéraux; Et Les Opuscules Minéralogiques Qui comprennent un Traité de l'Appropriation, un Traité de l'Origine Des Pierres, plusieurs Mémoires sur la Chymie & l'Historie Naturell, avec un Traité des Maladies des Mineurs & des Fondeurs. Par M. Jean-Frederic Henckel, Docteur en Médecine, Conseiller des Mines…Ouvrages Traduits De L'Allemand. Paris, Chez Jean-Thomas Hérissant, Libraire, rue S. Jacques, à S. Paul & à S. Hilaire. M. DCC. LX. (1760). Large quarto, pp. xviii, 403, (1), 524, with 1 engraved frontispiece and 5 folded engraved plates.
This French translation from the first German edition is complete and in a contemporary full mottled calf with ornate gilt spine panels and gilt titles and marbled end sheets. The binding is clean with light scuffing to the boards and edges. The front hinge is separating along the upper edge but remains solid and tight. The text and all plates are clean and bright with small, neat, contemporary penned notes in the outer margin of some plate images. In very good condition.
Johann Friedrich Henckel, (1678-1744) was a German geologist, mineralogist and mining engineer. Henckel studied medicine and opened a medical practice in Dresden before transferring his practice to the mining town of Freiberg in Saxony where he practiced medicine for 18 years, becoming district physician in 1718 and town physician and mine physician in 1721. Henckel also gave lectures and courses in metallurgical chemistry and the relationship between plants and mineral deposits. In 1730 Henckel resigned his post and was appointed Director of Mines at Freiberg. He established a large laboratory in Freiberg and resumed his annual course in metallurgical chemistry. This course became renowned throughout Europe, and instrumental in the founding of the Freiberg Bergakademie in 1765.
By far, Henckel’s most important publication was “Pyrotolgie” which was first published in German in 1723. The work was soon to be updated and translated into English and French. Henckel’s work is an encyclopedic study of pyrites. He recognizes three types: golden iron pyrites, golden copper pyrites and white arsenic pyrites. Henckel describes, each of these types and speculates on each. He uses physical properties including hardness and crystal form, chemical composition including the amounts of sulphur, arsenic, copper, etc contained, and speculates on why pyrite is usually found in association with rich veins of ore. This work was to exert a strong influence of subsequent investigators engaged in mineral analysis.
The beautiful frontispiece depicts ore being transported from the mine to a smelting shed and other aspects of mining life. The plates depict pyrites in their various forms.
