De re metallica

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Title page of De re metallica libri XII

De re metallica libri XII ( Vom Bergkwerck XII Books ) is a book published in Latin in 1556 by Georgius Agricola (Georg Bauer) about the mining and exploration methods known at the time.

content

De re metallica libri XII deals with the following topics in 12 chapters :

  • Book I: On the mining and smeltering occupation and its benefits
  • Book II: On the Start of Mining
  • Book III: About the corridors, crevices and rock layers
  • Book IV: Of the mine fields and of the miners' offices
  • Book V: Of the exploration and mining of the deposits
  • Book VI: Of the tools, implements and machines
  • Book VII: Of The Tasting Being
    Woodcut from Book VIII
  • Book VIII: Of Preparing Ores for Smelting
  • Book IX: Of the smelting furnaces and the methods of extraction of metals
  • Book X: From Precious Metals Separation, Abrasion and Silver Finishing
  • Book XI: Of Desilvering Black Copper and Iron
  • Book XII: Of Salts and Glass

In addition to the text, 292 woodcuts, some of which were designed by Agricola himself, complement the depictions. The final drawing was done by Basilius Wefringaus from St. Joachimsthal (Jachymov) and the woodcuts were made by Rudolf Manuel Deutsch (1525–1571) from Basel. Without a doubt, they represent some of the most frequently used illustrations of medieval and early modern mining.

Translations

In 1557 the version translated into German by Philippus Bechius (1521–1560) appeared under the title Vom Bergkwerck XII Bücher . In 1912 the couple Herbert Clark Hoover ( mining engineer and later US President) and Lou Henry Hoover (geologist) published an English edition with numerous footnotes. A new German version was published by the metallurgist Carl Schiffner in 1926 and another in 1994. Further, chronologically ordered translations exist into Chinese, Italian, English, Czech, Russian, Japanese, Spanish, Hungarian and French.

expenditure

  • Georgii Agricolae. De Re Metallica libri XII. - Basileae: Froben. - 1556. - 590 pp.
  • Georgius Agricola. From Bergkwerck XII Bucher. - Basel: Froben. - 1557. - 486 pp.
  • Georgius Agricola. De Re Metallica. Translated by Herbert Clark Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover. - New York: Dover Publications. - 1950.
  • Georgius Agricola. Twelve books on mining and metallurgy. In which the offices, instruments, machines and all things that belong to the mining and metallurgy industry are not only described in the clearest possible way, but also made clear through images ... Translated by Carl Schiffner. - Berlin: VDI-Verlag. - 1928. - 564 pp.

literature

  • Twelve books on mining and metallurgy. German translation by Carl Schiffner together with Ernst Darmstaedter a . a., Munich 1928 ( digitized ; facsimile print of the 3rd edition from 1953, VDI-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1961 and (declared as 4th edition) 1978, ISBN 3-18-400400-7 )

Web links

Commons : De re metallica  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Agricola  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Friedrich Naumann : 450 years "De re metallica libri XII" - Georgius Agricola's main work. Series of publications by the Georg Agricola Society. 2006; 31: 9-40.
  2. TU Bergakademie Freiberg "Georgius Agricola - A world-famous universal scholar"