Description methodique du cabinet de l'Ecole royale des Mines / Supplement a la Description methodique du cabinet de l'Ecole Royale des Mines

Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1784. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. 1st Edition. Hardcover. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. 1784-1787. Two parts bound in one volume. 8vo (196 x 127 mm). [2], xvi, 487 [1], xi [1]; [2], 156 pp. Bound in near contemporary half calf, plain spine with some gilt decoration and gilt lettering, red-sprinkled edges, light blue endpapers (boards rubbed, extremities worn, corners bumped, joints cracked). Internally crisp and clean with occasional very minor spotting, annotations in very light pencil to several pages of first part, short tear to first title without loss. Very good copy in untouched binding. ---- FIRST EDITION of this important inventory of minerals and precious stones in the collection of the Ecole Royale des Mines. Sage (1740-1824) was appointed extraordinary professor of mineralogy and assaying at the Paris Mint by King Louis XV in 1778, teaching classes in both chemistry and mineralogy. Sage served for 10 years as the first director of the Paris School of Mines and Museum of Mineralogy, institutions founded by King Louis XVI in 1783. The extraordinary mineralogical collection was built at Sage's own expense for the instruction of his students. Sage was also elected a member of the French Academy of Science. His research emphasized assaying and chemical analysis, galvanism and natural history (see C. Schuh, ref. cit.). This supplement includes descriptions of specimens that were new to the collection or overlooked in the original volume. EDITION ORIGINALE RARE. Importante Table des Matières. Balthasar-Georges Sage est a l'origine de la fondation de l'Ecole royale des Mines par Louis XVI en 1783, qu'il dirigea pendant dix ans. On lui doit plus d'une soixantaine de memoires, dont cet ouvrage, qui forme l'inventaire de la precieuse collection du cabinet de l'Ecole Royale des Mines, collection qu'il constitua a ses frais pour l'instruction des eleves. Literature: Gatterer, Mineralogischen Literatur, 1798-9: 1, 273; LKG: XV 37; Partsch, Katalog der Bibliothek, 1851, no. 481; Sinkankas, Gemology Bibliography, 1993, no. 5685; Wilson, History of Mineral Collecting, 1994, pp. 49-50, 53 & 223; C. Schuh, Bibliography of Mineralogy, Mineralogical Record (online). - Visit our website for additional images and information.