Laboratoire d'analyse de minerais, avec four, instrument et outils - Page de titre de Description...

Laboratoire d'analyse de minerais, avec four, instrument et outils - Page de titre de Description des minerais et des principales methodes d'exploitation miniere, de Lazarus Ecker - Alchemy & Early Chemistry Title page from a book on metallurgy, 1580. Title page of German text with a vignette of an assayer's laboratory with furnaces, apparatus and tools. Illustration from ïBeschreibung aller furnemisten mineralischen Ertzt vnnd Bergtwercks arten (ïDescription of the Principle Mineral Ores and Methods of Mining) by Lazarus Ercker (d 1594) published in Frankfurt-am-Main in 1580. In 1554 Ercker was appointed assayer at Dresden and later became a control tester of coins. This book is a mine of information concerning sixteenth century metallurgy and assaying. It can be regarded as the first manual of analytical and metallurgical chemistry. ©SSPL/Science Museum