Agricola

“ The arable lands are annually changed, and a part left fallow; nor do they attempt to make the most of the fertility and plenty of the soil, by their own industry in planting orchards, inclosing meadows, and watering gardens. Corn is the only product required from the earth: hence their year is not divided into so many seasons as ours; for, while they know and distinguish by name Winter, Spring, and Summer, they are unacquainted equally with the appellation and bounty of Autumn. ”

“ The ground itself is turned up with ploughshares and harrows, tough stalks and the tops of the roots are broken off and dug up with a mattock, the sown seed is harrowed, the corn field is hoed and weeded ”

“ We feel that it is scarcely doing Agricola justice to publish De Re Metallica only. While it is of the most general interest of all of his works, yet, from the point of view of pure science, De Natura Fossilium and De Ortu et Causis are works which deserve an equally important place. It is unfortunate that Agricola's own countrymen have not given to the world competent translations into German, as his work has too often been judged by the German translations, the infidelity of which appears in nearly every paragraph. ”

“ The Reformation itself was yet to come, but it was not long delayed, for Luther was born the year before Agricola, and through him Agricola's homeland became the cradle of the great movement; nor did Agricola escape being drawn into the conflict. Italy, already awake with the new classical revival, was still a busy workshop of antiquarian research, translation, study, and publication, and through her the Greek and Latin Classics were only now available for wide distribution. ”

“ No man could have thus held the respect of his countrymen unless he were devoid of bigotry and possessed of the highest sense of integrity, justice, humanity, and patriotism.
AGRICOLA'S INTELLECTUAL ATTAINMENTS AND POSITION IN SCIENCE.
Agricola's education was the most thorough that his times afforded in the classics, philosophy, medicine, and sciences generally. Further, his writings disclose a most exhaustive knowledge not only of an extraordinary range of classical literature, but also of obscure manuscripts buried in the public libraries of Europe. ”

“ Thou wast indeed fortunate, Agricola, not only in the splendour of thy life, but in the opportune moment of thy death. ”

“ Considering the part which the metallic arts have played in human history, the paucity of their literature down to Agricola's time is amazing. No doubt the arts were jealously guarded by their practitioners as a sort of stock-in-trade, and it is also probable that those who had knowledge were not usually of a literary turn of mind ”

“ As to Agricola's contribution to the sciences of mining and metallurgy, De Re Metallica speaks for itself. While he describes, for the first time, scores of methods and processes, no one would contend that they were discoveries or inventions of his own. They represent the accumulation of generations of experience and knowledge ”

“ There is no measure by which we may gauge the value of such a work to the men who followed in this profession during centuries, nor the benefits enjoyed by humanity through them.
That Agricola occupied a very considerable place in the great awakening of learning will be disputed by none except by those who place the development of science in rank far below religion, politics, literature, and art. ”

“ Agricola's Latin, while mostly free from mediæval corruption, is somewhat tainted with German construction. Moreover some portions have not the continuous flow of sustained thought which others display, but the fact that the writing of the work extended over a period of twenty years, sufficiently explains the considerable variation in style. ”

“ Furthermore, no appreciation of Agricola's contribution to science can be gained without a study of De Ortu et Causis and De Natura Fossilium, for while De Re Metallica is of much more general interest, it contains but incidental reference to Geology and Mineralogy. Apart from the book of Genesis, the only attempts at funda- mental explanation of natural phenomena were those of the Greek Philosophers and the Alchemists. ”

“ All these minerals were later found to be forms of zinc, cobalt, or arsenic, and some of these minerals were in use long prior to Agricola. From Greek and Roman times down to long after Agricola, brass was made by cementing zinc ore with copper. Aristotle and Strabo mention an earth used to colour copper, but give no details. ”

“ It is the nature of men, that whomsoever they injure they hate. Now Domitian was in his temper apt to be suddenly transported into rage, and, in proportion as he smothered his vengeance, the more irreconcilable he always certainly proved. Yet by the prudence and moderation of Agricola, he was softened. For, by no contumacy of his, nor by any vain ostentation of a spirit of liberty ill-timed, did he court fame or urge his fate. ”

“ Georgius Agricola, with us. It is, therefore, our will that you should yield him up and forward him that he should with the utmost haste set forth to us here near Freiberg.” He was sent on various missions from the Duke to the Emperor Charles, to King Ferdinand of Austria, and to other Princes in matters connected with the war the fact that he was a Catholic probably entering into his appointment to such missions. Chemnitz was occupied by the troops of first one side, then the other, despite the great efforts of Agricola to have his own town specially defended. ”

“ In 1533 he published De Mensuris et Ponderibus, through Froben, this being a discussion of Roman and Greek weights and measures. At about this time he began De Re Metallica not to be published for twenty-five years. Agricola did not confine his interest entirely to medicine and mining, for during this period he composed a pamphlet upon the Turks, urging their extermination by the European powers. ”

“ We have confined the historical notes to the time prior to Agricola, because to have carried them down to date in the briefest manner would have demanded very much more space than could be allowed. In the examination of such technical and historical material one is appalled at the flood of mis-information with regard to ancient arts and sciences which has been let loose upon the world by the hands of non-technical translators and commentators. ”

“ Agricola states that he means to publish twelve books De Re Metallica, if he lives. That the appearance of this work was eagerly anticipated is evidenced by a letter from George Fabricius to Valentine Hertel : [17] “With great excitement the books De Re Metallica are being awaited. If he treats the material at hand with his usual zeal, he will win for himself glory such as no one in any of the fields of literature has attained for the last thousand years.” According to the dedication of De Veteribus et Novis Metallis, Agricola in 1546 already looked forward to its early publication. ”

“ Agricola seems to have resigned his position at Joachimsthal in about 1530, and to have devoted the next two or three years to travel and study among the mines. About 1533 he became city physician of Chemnitz, in Saxony, and here he resided until his death in 1555. There is but little record of his activities during the first eight or nine years of his residence in this city. He must have been engaged upon the study of his subjects and the preparation of his books, for they came on with great rapidity soon after. ”

“ The fundgrube of Saxony and Agricola's equivalent, the area capitis—head lease—we have rendered literally as "head meer," although in some ways "founders' meer" might be better, for, in Derbyshire, this was called the "finder's" or founder's meer, and was awarded under similar circumstances. It has also an analogy in Australian law in the "reward" leases. The term "measure" has the merit of being a literal rendering of the Latin, and also of being the identical term in the same use in the High Peak. ”

“ Our word "arsenic" obviously takes root in the Greek for orpiment, which was also used by Pliny (xxxiv, 56) as arrhenicum, and later was modified to arsenicum by the Alchemists, who applied it to the oxide. Agricola gives the following in Bermannus (p. 448) , who has been previously discussing realgar and orpiment:—"Ancon: Avicenna also has a white variety. Bermannus: I cannot at all believe in a mineral of a white colour ”

“ To many even liberal scholars of the day, Luther's doctrines appeared wild and demagogic. Luther was not a scholarly man; his addresses were to the masses; his Latin was execrable. Nor did the bitter dissensions over hair-splitting theology in the Lutheran Church after Luther's death tend to increase respect for the movement among the learned. Agricola was a scholar of wide attainments, a deep-thinking, religious man, and he remained to the end a staunch Catholic, despite the general change of sentiment among his countrymen. ”

“ Of many of the Alchemists mentioned by Agricola little is really known, and no two critics agree as to the commonest details regarding many of them; in fact, an endless confusion springs from the negligent habit of the lesser Alchemists of attributing the authorship of their writings to more esteemed members of their own ilk, such as Hermes, Osthanes, etc., not to mention the palpable spuriousness of works under the names of the real philosophers, such as Aristotle, Plato, or Moses, and even of Jesus Christ. ”

“ In 1546, when he was at the age of 52, began Agricola's activity in public life, for in that year he was elected a Burgher of Chemnitz; and in the same year Duke Maurice appointed him Burgomaster an office which he held for four terms. Before one can gain an insight into his political services, and incidentally into the character of the man, it is necessary to understand the politics of the time and his part therein, and to bear in mind always that he was a staunch Catholic under a Protestant Sovereign in a State seething with militant Protestantism. ”

“ Another work, De Animantibus Subterraneis, usually published with De Re Metallica, is dated 1548 in the preface. It is devoted to animals which live underground, at least part of the time, but is not a very effective basis of either geologic or zoologic classification. Despite many public activities, Agricola apparently completed De Re Metallica in 1550, but did not send it to the press until 1553 ”

“ The other ausgehen is contrary to or toward the strike (slreichen) of ’ the vein, according to its rock (gestein) , that is called the gesteins ausgehen; for instance, ’ every vein that has its strike from east to west has its gesleins ausgehen to the east, and ’ vice-versa," Agricola’s classification of ore-deposits, after the general distinction between alluvial and in situ deposits, is based entirely upon form, as will be seen in the quotation below relating to the origin of canales. ”

“ In the preface of De Re Metallica, Agricola does not mention who prepared the sketches, but does say : “I have hired illustrators to delineate their forms, lest descriptions which are conveyed by words should either not be understood by men of our own times, or should cause difficulty to posterity.” In 1553 the completed book was sent to Froben for publication, for a letter [19] from Fabricius to Meurer in March, 1553, announces its dispatch to the printer. ”

“ The name Chemistry written in Greek, or Chemia, is so ancient as perhaps to have been used in the antediluvian age. Of this opinion was Zosimus the Panopolite, whose Greek writings, though known as long as before the year 1550 to George Agricola, and afterwards perused . . . . by Jas. Scaliger and Olaus Bofrichius, still remain unpublished in the King of France's library. In one of these, entitled, ' The Instruction of Zosimus the Panopolite and Philosopher, out of those written to Theosebeia, etc. ”

“ That his general learning was held to be of a high order is amply evidenced from the correspondence of the other scholars of his time Erasmus, Melanchthon, Meurer, Fabricius, and others.
Our more immediate concern, however, is with the advances which were due to him in the sciences of Geology, Mineralogy, and Mining Engineering. No appreciation of these attainments can be conveyed to the reader unless he has some understanding of the dearth of knowledge in these sciences prior to Agricola's time. ”

“ Both realgar and orpiment were important for pigments, medicinal purposes, and poisons among the Ancients. In addition to the above, some arsenic-cobalt minerals are included under cadmia.
Iron Minerals.
The classification of iron ores on the basis of exterior characteristics, chiefly hardness and brilliancy, does not justify a more narrow rendering than “ironstone.” Agricola (De Nat. Fos., Book V.) gives elaborate descriptions of various iron ores, but the descriptions under any special name would cover many actual minerals. The subject of pyrites is a most con- fused one ”

“ Everywhere the same bountiful soil, the same superb orchards, the same ripe fields of wheat and barley, and silver rye. The peasants were at work, men and women, cutting the grain with rude scythes, binding it into sheaves, and stacking it in the fields. As we rode over the plain, the boys came running out to us with handfuls of grain, saluting us from afar, bidding us welcome as pilgrims, wishing us as many years of prosperity as there were kernels in their sheaves, and kissing the hands that gave them the harvest-toll. ”

“ I have now two acres of wheat,—of oats, and nearly an acre in garden under turnips, cabbages, rape, potatoes, carrots, borecole, radishes, spinach, peas, lettuces, mustard, onions, tomatos, and almonds, and hope to have another acre of wheat and one of barley, besides some portion under maize and millet, at an expense of 3l. per acre for breaking up the land with hired teams, but more probably I shall substitute my own young cattle. ”