Folio. Numerous full-page and in-text illustrations reproducing the 1556 woodcuts. (Few spots of old adhesive residue to free endpapers.) Original vellum parchment, spine lettered in black, uncut and unopened (soiling, some minor stains); publisher's slipcase (edges worn, top and bottom flaps detached but present).

FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH. This first systematic treatise on mining and metallurgy was translated from the first Latin Edition of 1556 by the 31st President of the United States, Herbert Hoover, and his wife Lou Henry. Hoover was a mining engineer before entering politics and his wife a former Latin teacher. Duveen, p. 5; Hoover 28; Norman 21.

[Laid in:] A sepia toned photograph (10 3/4 x 7 1/2 in.) of Herbert Hoover, INSCRIBED BY HOOVER in the lower margin "with kind regards of Herbert Hoover".