PLATTES, Gabriel

by Gabriel Plattes

£9,500 · Offered by Sokol Books

Rare first edition of this most interesting work on mining and the discovery of minerals with a large section section on the arts of dyeing and fixing colours. It gives directions for finding metals and minerals, for melting, refining and essaying them , and not only how to test gold but how to make it. Unfortunately, this was at greater cost than its value and of so little benefit to its discoverer that Plattes is said to have dropped down dead in the London streets for want of food (Lowndes). The Discovery also included some interesting notices of the gold and silver mines in Peru, New England, Virginia, the Bermudas, and other parts of America . Sabin. Very little is known about Gabriel Plattes; he was probably born at the beginning of the century. There is little evidence regarding Plattes career in the period preceding his association with the Hartlib Circle. He seems to have been William Engelbert s assistant, to whom he dedicated his first two books: A Discovery of Subterraneall Treasure , .. and A Discovery of Infinite Treasure, hidden since the World s Beginning both of them published in 1639. These two books were designed to be complementary .. The scientific and technological sections were interspersed with remarks about ethical and economic issues, pointing to a religious obligation which Plattes believed that people like him had to nourish in themselves and to disseminate it to the widest public in order to contribute to the improvement of the estate of the natio

• Binding: Hardcover

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