BERGMAN, Torbern Olof. Sciagraphia Regni Mineralis secundum principia proxima digesti. Editio prima italica.Firenze, Al Segno della Quercia, 1783.

8vo small, mm. 170x110; Contemporary brown cardboard binding, marbled edges, label on the spine with golden title; pp. 160.

Very rare first edition Italian. The work, published in Leipzig in 1782, laid the basis for the classification of the mineral according to the chemical composition; in the same year the Swedish scientist created the foundations of analytical chemistry as a whole. Emil Offenbacher: “This is his attempt at a general reform of the classification of minerals on chemical principles.

It contains numerous investigations into the chemical compound of minerals, which were simplified by Bergman’s perfection of the blowpipe analysis. This important text was immediately translated into English, French, and German”. Duveen: “Using present day nomenclature this might be called a text-book of inorganic chemistry.”

Partington, III, p. 184-5; Duveen, p. 67, quotes the english ed.; Emil Offenbacher, 1985.

Nice specimen