Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, 1912/1950

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              <s>
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              preserved in the archives of the Zwickau Town Council, calls himself “Bauer,”
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              and in them refers to his brother “Agricola.” He entered the University of
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              Leipsic at the age of twenty, and after about three and one-half years' attendance
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              there gained the degree of
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              Baccalaureus Artíum.
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              <s> In 1518 he became Vice­
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              Principal of the Municipal School at Zwickau, where he taught Greek and Latin.
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              <s>In 1520 he became Principal, and among his assistants was Johannes Förster,
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              better known as Luther's collaborator in the translation of the Bible. </s>
              <s>During
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              this time our author prepared and published a small Latin Grammar
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              2
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              . </s>
              <s>In
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              1522 he removed to Leipsic to become a lecturer in the University under his
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              friend, Petrus Mosellanus, at whose death in 1524 he went to Italy for the
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              further study of Philosophy, Medicine, and the Natural Sciences. </s>
              <s>Here he
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              remained for nearly three years, from 1524 to 1526. He visited the Universities
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              of Bologna, Venice, and probably Padua, and at these institutions received
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              his first inspiration to work in the sciences, for in a letter
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              3
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              from Leonardus
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              Casibrotius to Erasmus we learn that he was engaged upon a revision of Galen.
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              </s>
              <s>It was about this time that he made the acquaintance of Erasmus, who had
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              settled at Basel as Editor for Froben's press.</s>
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              <s>In 1526 Agricola returned to Zwickau, and in 1527 he was chosen town
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              physician at Joachimsthal. </s>
              <s>This little city in Bohemia is located on the
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              eastern slope of the Erzgebirge, in the midst of the then most prolific metal­
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              mining district of Central Europe. </s>
              <s>Thence to Freiberg is but fifty miles,
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              and the same radius from that city would include most of the mining towns
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              so frequently mentioned in
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              De Re Metallíca
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              —Schneeberg, Geyer, Annaberg
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              and Altenberg—and not far away were Marienberg, Gottesgab, and Platten.
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              </s>
              <s>Joachimsthal was a booming mining camp, founded but eleven years before
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              Agricola's arrival, and already having several thousand inhabitants. </s>
              <s>Accord­
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              ing to Agricola's own statement
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              4
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              , he spent all the time not required for his
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              medical duties in visiting the mines and smelters, in reading up in the Greek and
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              Latin authors all references to mining, and in association with the most learned
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              among the mining folk. </s>
              <s>Among these was one Lorenz Berman, whom Agricola
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              afterward set up as the “learned miner” in his dialogue
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              Bermannus.
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              </s>
              <s> This
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              book was first published by Froben at Basel in 1530, and was a sort of
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              catechism on mineralogy, mining terms, and mining lore. </s>
              <s>The book was
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              apparently first submitted to the great Erasmus, and the publication arranged
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              by him, a warm letter of approval by him appearing at the beginning of the
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              book
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              5
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              . </s>
              <s>In 1533 he published
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              De Mensuris et Ponderibus,
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              through Froben,
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              this being a discussion of Roman and Greek weights and measures. </s>
              <s>At
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              about this time he began
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              De Re Metallica
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              —not to be published for
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              twenty-five years.
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              </s>
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