(Born: Dröschkau, Germany, 14 May 1725; Died: Berlin, Germany, 15 May 1802) German statesman & mining expert.

Heinitz (or Heynitz) was a member of an important aristocracy family in Saxony. He attended the Universities of Dresden and Freiberg, where he studied mining and smelting. In 1765, he was put in charge of mining, smelting, and forestry in Saxony and immediately founded the Bergakademie Freiberg, now the oldest mining school in the world. He is considered as the reformer of the mining industry of Braunschweig, having reorganized the mining and metallurgical operations of Prussia.

Biographical references: ADB. • DBA: I 500, 137-148 & I 534, 443-444. • Hamberger & Meusel, Gelehrte Teutschland, 1796-1834. • Mager, Johannes, "Friedrich Anton von Heynitz (1725-1802). Streiflichter aus seinem Leben und familiären Umfeld," Der Anschnitt, 2003, Heft 1. • Schiffner, Alter Freiberger Bergstudenten, 1935-40: 1, ??. • WBI.

Entdeckung einer dem Kreuz=Steine, 1780

1. German, 1780.
Entdeckung | einer dem | Kreuz=Steine | wesentlichen | Entstehungs=Art der Kreuz=Figur. | [rule] | An | Ge. Excellenz | den | Hochwohlgebohrnen Herrn | Friedrich Anton Freyherrn von Heinitz, | [...4 lines of titles and memberships...] | [ornament] | [rule] | Mit einer ausgemahlten Kupfer=Tafel. | [ornate rule] | Hamburg. | Bey Johann Philipp Christian Reuß.

4°: A-D⁴ E³; 19l.; [1]-38 p., engraved hand-colored frontispiece (cross-sections of Kreuz-Steine). Page size: 220 x 180 mm.

Contents: [1-2], Title page, verso blank.; [3]-38, Text.

Very rare. The realistically colored frontispiece shows a parchment covered with drawings of various "cross-stones" resting on top of a wooden cabinet, holding a specimen of the cross stone. The text describes the mineral, Chiastolite (a variety of Andalusite), its occurance, and use.

Bibliographical references: Cobres, Deliciæ Cobresianæ, 1782: p. 186. • Dryander, Catalogus Banks, 1796-1800: 4, p. 262. • NUC.

2. German, 1786 [First edition].
Abhandlung über die Produkte des Mineralreichs in den königlich-preussischen Staaten, und über die Mittel, diesen Zweig des Staats-Haushaltes immer mehr empor zu bringen. Berlin, Ben George Jacob Decker, 1786.

8°: [2], 113, [1] p.

Rare. Subjects: Mineral industries-Germany-Prussia. Manufactures-Germany-Prussia.

Bibliographical references: BL. • NUC.

3. French, 1786 [French transl.].
Mémoire | Sur Les | Produits Du Regne Minéral | De La | Monarchie Prussienne | Et Sur | Les Moyens | De Cultiver Cette Branche | De L'Économie Politique. | [ornament] | [double rule] | á Berlin, | chez George Jacques Decker, imprimeur du roi. | MDCCLXXXVI.

4°: 38 p.

Very rare. A treatise on mineral production in Prussia with suggestions for its improvement; a German version appeared the same year. His first book, the Essai d'Économie Politique (Basel, 1785, which also appeared in German as Tabellen über die Staatswirthschaft, Leipzig, 1786), is a rare work of comparative economic theory, in which Heinitz illustrates four different aspects of a state's political economy.

Bibliographical references: BL [B.348.(2.)]. • LKG: XIV 741. • NUC.

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