DIETRICH (Philippe-Frédéric de). - Lot 37

DIETRICH (Philippe-Frédéric de). Description des gîtes de minerai, des forges et des salines des Pyrénées, suivie d'observations sur le fer mazé et sur les mines des sards en Poitou. Paris: Didot fils aîné, Cuchet; Strasbourg: Treuttel, 1786. - 2 parts in 2 volumes in-4, 250 x 192: pp. (iii)-xxxiv, (1 f.), 328 pp. 2 plates, 3 tables; (1 f.), pp. 329-597, 4 plates, 4 tables. Marbled calf, double cold fillet framing the boards, ornate ribbed spine, red edges (period binding). First edition dedicated to the Count of Artois of this very rare work. Its author was Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich (1748-1793), mineralogist, member of the Académie des Sciences and mayor of Strasbourg. He published it while serving as Secretary General of the Swiss Army, the Comte d'Artois (later CharlesX) being his Colonel-General at the time. His ambition was to describe the mines and factories of the whole of France. He was only able to publish this first volume, which forms the first 2 parts of the whole, devoted to the deposits and factories of the Pyrenees, as well as parts 3, 4, 5 and 6, published in Year VIII, relating to southern Lorraine. The work is divided into 10 memoirs: 1. sur l'or qu'on retire de l'Oriège ou Ariège dans le comté de Foix. - 2 Observation sur le travail des forges dans le comté de Foix, Et Procès verbaux des expériences faites par l'Auteur, avec des mines tirées d'autres provinces du royaume. - 3 Mines and forges in the generality of Pau, county of Foix. - 4 Mines and forges in Couserans. - 5 Description of the mines of Cominges & the Four Valleys in Gascony. - 6. Description des mines de la Bigorre. - 7 Description des mines, forges & salines du Béarn. - 8 Description des mines, forges & salines de la Soule, en Basse-Navarre. - 9 Concerning the forges of the Grandes Landes, mazé iron & the consumption of earth coal in the generality of Bourdeaux. - 10 Description of the Sards mines, near Sables d'Olonne, in Poitou. The edition is illustrated with 6 plates, 4 of which are fold-outs in color, and also includes 7 fold-out tables listing the mines and forges in the various localities studied. Jacques Labarère, one of the greatest specialists in Pyrenean books, classified this work as one of the 20 rarest Pyrenean books (Enquête de bibliographie, les vingt livres pyrénéistes les plus rares, in revue Pyrénées, n° 113, January-March 1978, p. 50, 14th title on the list). Headpieces missing, hinges cracked, corners dulled. Interior very well preserved. Provenance: Stamp "V. Rehdigersche Staatbibliothek Breslau" on verso of both titles, and stamp, presumably of assignment, at the end of the first volume, stating: "Stadtbibl Breslau 24 9. 36."