Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, 1912/1950

Table of figures

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              stride of advance over anything previous, that they merit careful consideration.</s>
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              Eyn Nützlich Bergbüchlin.
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              </s>
              <s> Under this title we frequently refer to a little booklet on
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              veins and ores, published at the beginning of the 16th century. </s>
              <s>The title page of our copy is
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              as below:—</s>
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            <p type="caption">
              <s>
                <expan abbr="Eiñ">Einm</expan>
              nüb lith Berg
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              büchlin von allen Metal
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              len/als Golt/Silber/Zcyn/Rupfer
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              erts/
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              iſen ſtein/Bleyerts/
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              nd
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                <gap/>
              om Quec
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              ſilber.</s>
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            <figure number="308"/>
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              <s>This book is small 8vo, comprises 24 folios without pagination, and has no typographical
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              indications upon the title page, but the last line in the book reads:
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              Gedruckt zu Erffurd durch
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              Johan Loersfelt,
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              1527. Another edition in our possession, that of “Frankfurt am Meyn”,
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              1533, by Christian Egenolph, is entitled
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              Bergwerk und Probierbüchlin,
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              etc., and contains,
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              besides the above, an extract and plates from the
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              Probierbüchlein
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              (referred to later on), and a few
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              recipes for assay tests. </s>
              <s>All of these booklets, of which we find mention, comprise instructions
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              from Daniel, a skilled miner, to Knappius, “his mining boy”. </s>
              <s>Although the little books of
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              this title are all anonymous, we are convinced, largely from the statement in the Preface of
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                <emph type="italics"/>
              De Re Metallica,
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              that one Calbus of Freiberg was the original author of this work. </s>
              <s>Agricola
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              says: “Two books have been written in our tongue: the one on the assaying of mineral sub­
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              stances and metals, somewhat confused, whose author is unknown; the other ‘On Veins’,
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              of which Pandulfus Anglus is also said to have written,
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              although the German book was written
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              by Calbus of Freiberg, a well-known doctor; but neither of them accomplished the task he had
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              begun.
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              ” He again refers to Calbus at the end of Book III.
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              2
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              of
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              De Re Metallica,
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              and gives
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              an almost verbatim quotation from the
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              Nützlich Bergbüchlin.
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              </s>
              <s> Jacobi
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              3
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              says: “Calbus
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              Fribergius, so called by Agricola himself, is certainly no other than the Freiberg doctor,
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              Rühlein von C(K)albe.” There are also certain internal evidences that support Agricola's
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              statement, for the work was evidently written in Meissen, and the statement of Agricola that
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              the book was unfinished is borne out by a short dialogue at the end of the earlier editions,
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              designed to introduce further discussion. </s>
              <s>Calbus (or Dr. </s>
              <s>Ulrich Rühlein von Kalbe) was a very
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              active citizen of Freiberg, having been a town councillor in 1509, burgomaster in 1514, a
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              mathematician, mining surveyor, founder of a school of liberal arts, and in general a physician.
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              </s>
              <s>He died in 1523.
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              4
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              The book possesses great literary interest, as it is, so far as we are aware,
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              </s>
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