GUIDO, Giovanni

by Giovanni Guido

£4,250 · Offered by Sokol Books

Rare second edition of this most interesting chemical and legal work on mining and metallurgy. ‘De Mineralibus’ contains ‘a complete summary of all the questions concerning the extraction of minerals in the C17, with references to theories of medieval glossators up to early modern jurists’ (Mordini, p.263). Giovanni Guidi (or Guido, 1464-1530) was a Tuscan jurist from an influential family, acquainted with major figures such as Guicciardini and Ficino. ‘De Mineralibus’ begins with the Aristotelian theory of ‘causae’ (material, formal, efficient and final) for the examination of natural changes or movements; each of the four parts of ‘De Mineralibus’ tackles one of the Aristotelian causes. Part I is devoted first to miners and those who manage a mine, and their legal sphere: i.e., who is considered a miner (they include stone-cutters and miners’ children); the skills required; that miners could be lay or clerics (e.g., some friars near Volterra had an extraction business); taxation on miners’ profits (with gold dealt with separately); how to proceed if one owns or is renting an estate with minerals for extraction (with sections devoted to different kinds of ownership or land management); and specific regulations applying to gems. Second, to the various trades related to metals, e.g., goldsmiths and ironmongers (but not those who simply trade in precious metals), and all the regulations pertaining to them, e.g., that goldsmiths should not make jewels wit

• Binding: Hardcover

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