VENETTE, Nicolas.
(1633 – 1698)
Biographical references: Biographie Universelle: 43, 111-12 [lists other titles!].
1. French, 1701 [First edition].
Traite' | Des | Pierres | Qui s'engendrent dans les | Terres | & dans les Animaux, | Ou l'on parle exactement des causes | qui les forment dans les | Hommes. | La Méthode de les prévenir & les abus | pour s'en garantir & pour les chasser | même hors du Corps. | Par Feu Mr.Nicolas Venette | [...2 lines of titles and memberships...] | Enrichie des Figures. | [ornament] | A Amsterdam, | Chez Jean & Gilles Janssons | A Waesberge. | [rule] | M.D.C.C.I.
8°: [4], 326, [4] p., frontispiece (portrait), 7 plates (one folding). Title in red and black.
Rare. Venette suffered from gallstones and trying to discover their root cause, he studied various aspects of stone formation, which lead to his remarkable Treatise on Stones, which is a collection of his thoughts on geology, mineralogy, and human calculi. In this work, he describes volcanoes (Mt. Ætna), various gemstones, building materials, fossils, corals, etc. His principal interest being in the methods of their creation and their relation to the development of various stones that occur in the human body.
Bibliographical references: Boehmer, Bibliotheca Historiæ Naturalis, 1785-9: 4, pt. 1, 217. • Gatterer, Mineralogischen Literatur, 1798-9: 2, 8. • Hoover Collection: no. 817. • LKG: XVI 93. • Sinkankas, Gemology Bibliography, 1993: no. 6835 [long description].
2. German, 1763 [German transl.].
Abhandlung | von den | Steinen, | welche | in der Erde und in den Thieren | erzeugt werden, | darin man die Ursachen genau untersucht, | welche | sie in den Menschen hervorbringen, | und ferner die Art entdeckt, wie man dem | Stein zuvorkommen und ihn aus dem | menschlichen Cörper bringen kan. | übersetzt | aus dem Französischen | des | Herrn Venette, | [...2 lines of titles and memberships...] | [rule] | Mit Kupfern. | [rule] | Gorau, bey Gottlob Hebold. | 1763.
8°: 182, [18] p., frontispiece (portrait of Venette in an oval frame), 7 plates (one folding).
Rare. Translation of Traité de Pierres (Amsterdam, 1701).
Bibliographical references: Boehmer, Bibliotheca Historiæ Naturalis, 1785-9: 4, pt. 1, 217. • Gatterer, Mineralogischen Literatur, 1798-9: 2, 8. • Hoover Collection: no. 818. • LKG: XVI 93. • Schröter's Journal für die Liebhaber: 5, 220. • Sinkankas, Gemology Bibliography, 1993 [no copy listed].
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