Originally published in 1556, Agricola’s De Re Metallica was thè first hook on mining to be based on field research and observation—what today would be called thè “scientific approach.” It was therefore thè first book to offer detailed technical drawings to illustrate thè various specialized techniques of thè many branches of mining, and thè first to provide a realistic history of mining from antiquity to thè mid-sixteenth century.
For almost 200 years, Agricola remained thè only authoritative work in this area and by modera times it had become one of thè most highly respected scientific classics of ali time. A book more often referred to in literature on mining and metallurgy than any other, its Latin text prevented it from being as widely used as it might have been.
In 1912, thè book was translated by former President Herbert Clark Hoover and his wife. Printed in a limited edition, thè work was quickly bought up by book collectors, historians, and medievaìists, who had found that there was much to be learned from its pages. The book contains an unprecedented wealth of material on alluvial mining, alchemy, silver refining, smelting, surveying, timbering, nitric acid making, and hundreds of other phases of thè medieval art of metallurgy. The text even covers thè legai aspects of mining— thè use of boundary stones, forf eitures of titles, safety requirements of tunnel-building in thè 1500s, and so on.
But thè plates, perhaps more than anything else, have insured Agricola’s continued importance. Brilliantly executed drawings, richly detailed, reveal a whole medieval world of machinery, industriai technique, tools, even costume and architecture. Ali 289 of thè originai woodcuts are reproduced in this reprint of thè 1912 edition, offering students of thè period, commerciai artists, engineers, metallurgists, and even curious generai readers an unfor-gettable picture of thè first age of technology.
Unabridged Dover (1986) republication of thè 1912 edition. Three appen-dices: Bibliography, Ancient Authors, Weights and Measures. Biographical and Historical Introduction. Author’s and translator’s prefaces. Four facsimile pages from thè Latin originai. 289 illustrations.