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been translated by those of some scientific experience, such questions
will, no doubt, be properly settled.
We need make no apologies for De Re Metallica
During 180 years it was
not superseded as the text-book and guide to miners and metallurgists,
for until Schlüter's great work on metallurgy in 1738 it had no equal
That it passed through some ten editions in three languages at a period
when the printing of such a volume was no ordinary undertaking, is in
itself sufficient evidence of the importance in which it was held, and
is a record that no other volume upon the same subjects has equalled
since
A large proportion of the technical data given by Agricola was
either entirely new, or had not been given previously with sufficient
detail and explanation to have enabled a worker in these arts himself to
perform the operations without further guidance
Practically the whole
of it must have been given from personal experience and observation, for
the scant library at his service can be appreciated from his own
Preface
Considering the part which the metallic arts have played in
human history, the paucity of their literature down to Agricola's time
is amazing
No doubt the arts were jealously guarded by their
practitioners as a sort of stock-in-trade, and it is also probable that
those who had knowledge were not usually of a literary turn of mind;
and, [Pg iii]on the other hand, the small army of writers prior to his time
were not much interested in the description of industrial pursuits
Moreover, in those thousands of years prior to printing, the tedious and
expensive transcription of manuscripts by hand was mostly applied to
matters of more general interest, and therefore many writings may have
been lost in consequence
In fact, such was the fate of the works of
Theophrastus and Strato on these subjects.
We have prepared a short sketch of Agricola's life and times, not only
to give some indication of his learning and character, but also of his
considerable position in the community in which he lived
As no
appreciation of Agricola's stature among the founders of science can be
gained without consideration of the advance which his works display over
those of his predecessors, we therefore devote some attention to the
state of knowledge of these subjects at the time by giving in the
Appendix a short review of the literature then extant and a summary of
Agricola's other writings
To serve the bibliophile we present such data
as we have been able to collect it with regard to the various editions
of his works
The full titles of the works quoted in the footnotes under
simply authors' names will be found in this Appendix.
We feel that it is scarcely doing Agricola justice to publish De Re
Metallica only
While it is of the most general interest of all of his
works, yet, from the point of view of pure science, De Natura
Fossilium and De Ortu et Causis are works which deserve an equally
important place
It is unfortunate that Agricola's own countrymen have
not given to the world competent translations into German, as his work
has too often been judged by the German translations, the infidelity of
which appears in nearly every paragraph.
We do not present De Re Metallica as a work of "practical" value