Directorio del Beneficio del Azogue en los Metales de Plata…y Documentos que dà un Padre, a un Hijo, en sus Reglas, y advertencias.
[Bolivia], c. 1780.
MANUSCRIPT. 4to (205 x 150 mm.). [112] leaves. In a single cursive hand.
Contemporary limp vellum (rear cover mottled black), manuscript spine title Varios Papel[o]s Relativ[o]s De Mineris Tom. ?3, remnants of four leather ties, uncut.
With: Torre Barrio y Lima, Lorenzo Phelipe de la. fl. 1711-1740. Ad I: THIS EXTRAORDINARY WITNESS TO MINING TECHNOLOGY AND INDIGENOUS LABOR IN BOLIVIA WAS COMPOSED IN 1691, despite government restrictions on divulging the information. The Directory gives step-by-step instructions on refining silver through mercury amalgamation: “chemical reactions that would not be fully deciphered until late in the nineteenth century” (Guerrero).
Arte O Cartilla Del Nuevo Beneficio De La Plata. Lima, A.J. Gutierrez de Zevallos 1738. 4to (250 x 148 mm.). [viii], 56p. Title in fleuron border.
The book has three sections. The first offers definitions and general observations and describes the active properties of mercury. ONE CHAPTER CONCERNS THE MANAGEMENT OF INDIGENOUS WORKERS, who habitually sabotaged the refining process if left unsupervised: “either they don’t do it, or they do it all backwards” (f. [22]v, tr.). The second section deals with the use of tin in the amalgamation of mercury and silver ores containing lead, and the third discusses the refining of silver ores rich in copper, sulfide and other impurities.
The Directory distills Alcalá y Amurrio’s lifetime of knowledge gained in and around the world’s largest silver deposit, the Potosí mines in Bolivia. A native of Oruro, he learned to recognize the difference between silver ores containing copper, iron, sulfur, lead, etc., to determine the appropriate refining method for each and to prepare the amalgams. He insists on the experimental nature of assaying, mining and refining precious metals — A SKILL DEVELOPED THROUGH TRIAL AND ERROR.
Silver amalgamation technology exposed generations of Native workers to mercury poisoning while sustaining Spain’s colonial and commercial power for over two centuries. I have located three other manuscripts of the Directory (Univ. of New Mexico and two in Archivo y Biblioteca Nacionales de Bolivia); the second example cited by Maffei and Rua Figueroa (4424bis) remains untraced. In good condition (the final dozen leaves and the rear flyleaves stained, one blank margin repaired); from the libraries of mining bibliographer Eugenio Maffei (1827-92) and metallurgist John Jas. Croston.
¶Guerrero, Silver by Fire, Silver by Mercury: A Chemical History of Silver Refining in New Spain and Mexico 102 & passim; Maffei & Rua Figueroa, Apuntes para una biblioteca española de libros…de las riquezas minerales 3077 (this copy); Menendez Pelayo, Inventario bibliográfico de la ciencia española 393; Rodriguez Carracido, Los Metalúrgicos españoles en América 29-30; Bigelow, Mining the Languages of Empire in the Early Americas (online).
Ad II: First Edition. This announces A MAJOR ADVANCE IN SILVER REFINING: the use of iron sulfate in lieu of copper sulfate to bind the mercury amalgam. Torre Barrio y Lima worked in various mines across the Viceroyalty of Peru, then acquired the San Juan de Lucanas mines in 1736. HE OFTEN EMPLOYS LOCAL INDIGENOUS TERMINOLOGY in describing his experiments and explaining his new method’s virtues. In good condition (some light soiling, small fault in the typographic title border), Juan Antonio Lopez Morel’s contemporary annotations and signatures.
¶Medina, La Imprenta in Lima 919; Sabin, A Dictionary of Books Relating to America 96225; Palau, Manual del librero hispano-americano 335542; Maffei & Rua Figueroa 3077 (this copy); Menendez Pelayo 394; Rodriguez Carracido 28-9.
Price: $45,000.00