Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, 1912/1950

Page concordance

< >
Scan Original
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
< >
page |< < of 679 > >|
    <archimedes>
      <text>
        <body>
          <chap>
            <p type="main">
              <s>
                <pb pagenum="ii"/>
              the continuous flow of sustained thought which others display, but the fact
                <lb/>
              that the writing of the work extended over a period of twenty years, suffic­
                <lb/>
              iently explains the considerable variation in style. </s>
              <s>The technical descriptions
                <lb/>
              in the later books often take the form of House-that-Jack-built sentences
                <lb/>
              which have had to be at least partially broken up and the subject
                <lb/>
              occasionally re-introduced. </s>
              <s>Ambiguities were also sometimes found which it
                <lb/>
              was necessary to carry on into the translation. </s>
              <s>Despite these criticisms we
                <lb/>
              must, however, emphasize that Agricola was infinitely clearer in his style
                <lb/>
              than his contemporaries upon such subjects, or for that matter than his
                <lb/>
              successors in almost any language for a couple of centuries. </s>
              <s>All of the
                <lb/>
              illustrations and display letters of the original have been reproduced and
                <lb/>
              the type as closely approximates to the original as the printers have been
                <lb/>
              able to find in a modern font.</s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>There are no footnotes in the original text, and Mr. </s>
              <s>Hoover is responsible
                <lb/>
              for them all. </s>
              <s>He has attempted in them to give not only such comment
                <lb/>
              as would tend to clarify the text, but also such information as we have
                <lb/>
              been able to discover with regard to the previous history of the subjects
                <lb/>
              mentioned. </s>
              <s>We have confined the historical notes to the time prior to
                <lb/>
              Agricola, because to have carried them down to date in the briefest manner
                <lb/>
              would have demanded very much more space than could be allowed. </s>
              <s>In the
                <lb/>
              examination of such technical and historical material one is appalled at the
                <lb/>
              flood of mis-information with regard to ancient arts and sciences which has
                <lb/>
              been let loose upon the world by the hands of non-technical translators and
                <lb/>
              commentators. </s>
              <s>At an early stage we considered that we must justify any
                <lb/>
              divergence of view from such authorities, but to limit the already alarming
                <lb/>
              volume of this work, we later felt compelled to eliminate most of such dis­
                <lb/>
              cussion. </s>
              <s>When the half-dozen most important of the ancient works bearing
                <lb/>
              upon science have been translated by those of some scientific experience,
                <lb/>
              such questions will, no doubt, be properly settled.</s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>We need make no apologies for
                <emph type="italics"/>
              De Re Metallíca.
                <emph.end type="italics"/>
              </s>
              <s> During 180 years
                <lb/>
              it was not superseded as the text-book and guide to miners and metallurgists,
                <lb/>
              for until Schlüter's great work on metallurgy in 1738 it had no equal. </s>
              <s>That
                <lb/>
              it passed through some ten editions in three languages at a period when the
                <lb/>
              printing of such a volume was no ordinary undertaking, is in itself sufficient
                <lb/>
              evidence of the importance in which it was held, and is a record that no other
                <lb/>
              volume upon the same subjects has equalled since. </s>
              <s>A large proportion of the
                <lb/>
              technical data given by Agricola was either entirely new, or had not been
                <lb/>
              given previously with sufficient detail and explanation to have enabled a
                <lb/>
              worker in these arts himself to perform the operations without further guid­
                <lb/>
              ance. </s>
              <s>Practically the whole of it must have been given from personal ex­
                <lb/>
              perience and observation, for the scant library at his service can be appreci­
                <lb/>
              ated from his own Preface. </s>
              <s>Considering the part which the metallic arts
                <lb/>
              have played in human history, the paucity of their literature down to
                <lb/>
              Agricola's time is amazing. </s>
              <s>No doubt the arts were jealously guarded by
                <lb/>
              their practitioners as a sort of stock-in-trade, and it is also probable that
                <lb/>
              those who had knowledge were not usually of a literary turn of mind; and, </s>
            </p>
          </chap>
        </body>
      </text>
    </archimedes>
Impressum