Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, 1912/1950

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              <s>
                <pb pagenum="iii"/>
              on the other hand, the small army of writers prior to his time were not much
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              interested in the description of industrial pursuits. </s>
              <s>Moreover, in those
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              thousands of years prior to printing, the tedious and expensive transcription of
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              manuscripts by hand was mostly applied to matters of more general interest,
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              and therefore many writings may have been lost in consequence. </s>
              <s>In fact,
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              such was the fate of the works of Theophrastus and Strato on these subjects.</s>
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              <s>We have prepared a short sketch of Agricola's life and times, not only
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              to give some indication of his learning and character, but also of his
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              considerable position in the community in which he lived. </s>
              <s>As no appreciation
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              of Agricola's stature among the founders of science can be gained without
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              consideration of the advance which his works display over those of his
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              predecessors, we therefore devote some attention to the state of knowledge
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              of these subjects at the time by giving in the Appendix a short review of the
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              literature then extant and a summary of Agricola's other writings. </s>
              <s>To serve the
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              bibliophile we present such data as we have been able to collect it with regard
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              to the various editions of his works. </s>
              <s>The full titles of the works quoted in
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              the footnotes under simply authors' names will be found in this Appendix.</s>
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              <s>We feel that it is scarcely doing Agricola justice to publish
                <emph type="italics"/>
              De Re
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              Metallíca
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              only. </s>
              <s>While it is of the most general interest of all of his works,
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              yet, from the point of view of pure science,
                <emph type="italics"/>
              De Natura Fossílíum
                <emph.end type="italics"/>
              and
                <emph type="italics"/>
              De
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              Ortu et Causís
                <emph.end type="italics"/>
              are works which deserve an equally important place. </s>
              <s>It is
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              unfortunate that Agricola's own countrymen have not given to the world
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              competent translations into German, as his work has too often been judged
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              by the German translations, the infidelity of which appears in nearly every
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              paragraph.</s>
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            <p type="main">
              <s>We do not present
                <emph type="italics"/>
              De Re Metallíca
                <emph.end type="italics"/>
              as a work of “practical” value.
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              </s>
              <s>The methods and processes have long since been superseded; yet surely such
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              a milestone on the road of development of one of the two most basic of human
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              industrial activities is more worthy of preservation than the thousands of
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              volumes devoted to records of human destruction. </s>
              <s>To those interested in
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              the history of their own profession we need make no apologies, except
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              for the long delay in publication. </s>
              <s>For this we put forward the necessity of
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              active endeavour in many directions; as this book could be but a labour of
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              love, it has had to find the moments for its execution in night hours, week­
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              ends, and holidays, in all extending over a period of about five years. </s>
              <s>If the
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              work serves to strengthen the traditions of one of the most important and
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              least recognized of the world's professions we shall be amply repaid.</s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>It is our pleasure to acknowledge our obligations to Professor H. R.
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              Fairclough, of Stanford University, for perusal of and suggestions upon the first
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              chapter; and to those whom we have engaged from time to time for one service
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              or another, chiefly bibliographical work and collateral translation. </s>
              <s>We are
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              also sensibly obligated to the printers, Messrs. </s>
              <s>Frost & Sons, for their patience
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              and interest, and for their willingness to bend some of the canons of modern
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              printing, to meet the demands of the 16th Century.</s>
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              <s>THE RED HOUSE,</s>
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              <s>HORNTON STREET, LONDON.</s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>
                <emph type="italics"/>
              July
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              1, 1912.</s>
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          </chap>
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