Agricola, Georgius - De re metallica

Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, 1912/1950

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preserved in the archives of the Zwickau Town Council, calls himself “Bauer,”
and in them refers to his brother “Agricola.” He entered the University of
Leipsic at the age of twenty, and after about three and one-half years' attendance
there gained the degree of Baccalaureus Artíum. In 1518 he became Vice-
Principal of the Municipal School at Zwickau, where he taught Greek and Latin.
In 1520 he became Principal, and among his assistants was Johannes Förster,
better known as Luther's collaborator in the translation of the Bible. During
this time our author prepared and published a small Latin Grammar2. In
1522 he removed to Leipsic to become a lecturer in the University under his
friend, Petrus Mosellanus, at whose death in 1524 he went to Italy for the
further study of Philosophy, Medicine, and the Natural Sciences. Here he
remained for nearly three years, from 1524 to 1526. He visited the Universities
of Bologna, Venice, and probably Padua, and at these institutions received
his first inspiration to work in the sciences, for in a letter3 from Leonardus
Casibrotius to Erasmus we learn that he was engaged upon a revision of Galen.
It was about this time that he made the acquaintance of Erasmus, who had
settled at Basel as Editor for Froben's press.

In 1526 Agricola returned to Zwickau, and in 1527 he was chosen town
physician at Joachimsthal. This little city in Bohemia is located on the
eastern slope of the Erzgebirge, in the midst of the then most prolific metal-
mining district of Central Europe. Thence to Freiberg is but fifty miles,
and the same radius from that city would include most of the mining towns
so frequently mentioned in De Re Metallíca—Schneeberg, Geyer, Annaberg
and Altenberg—and not far away were Marienberg, Gottesgab, and Platten.
Joachimsthal was a booming mining camp, founded but eleven years before
Agricola's arrival, and already having several thousand inhabitants. Accord-
ing to Agricola's own statement4, he spent all the time not required for his
medical duties in visiting the mines and smelters, in reading up in the Greek and
Latin authors all references to mining, and in association with the most learned
among the mining folk. Among these was one Lorenz Berman, whom Agricola
afterward set up as the “learned miner” in his dialogue Bermannus. This
book was first published by Froben at Basel in 1530, and was a sort of
catechism on mineralogy, mining terms, and mining lore. The book was
apparently first submitted to the great Erasmus, and the publication arranged
by him, a warm letter of approval by him appearing at the beginning of the
book5. In 1533 he published De Mensuris et Ponderibus, through Froben,
this being a discussion of Roman and Greek weights and measures. At
about this time he began De Re Metallica—not to be published for
twenty-five years.

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