ON METALS IN GENERAL.

Chapter I.

EQUIVOCATIONS:

Book 8. Aeneid.

The opinion of theologians and Platonists testifies that we are elevated to a true knowledge of Almighty God through the knowledge of natural things. Therefore, having examined the nature of animals, we turn our discourse to inanimate things and first encounter metals; and at first glance, we shall find that the name "metal" applies to many things. For "metal" denotes the vein from which the same is extracted and smelted, and it was taken in this sense by Virgil when he sang:

Copper flows in streams, and the metal of gold.

Etymology of "Minera" (ore).

Sometimes it is taken to mean the mine from which the metal is drawn, which is called Minera ore/mine by the moderns, because the sides of the earth hang over the miners working within it like the projections of walls, which are accustomed to be called minae threats or projections. In this sense, Pliny called a gold mine a "gold-bearing metal." But what is more worthy of admiration is that by this name "metal," the mines of other fossils are also understood, since Herodotus testified that in Libya near the Atlas mountains, a "metal of salt" is found, and in Carmania, a "metal of red ochre."
Book 34. Chap. 7.

Dioscorides also did not depart from this meaning when he wrote ἐν μετάλλοις λίθοις original: "in metallis lithois", that is, in metals, meaning in the mines of stones. Indeed, Marbodeus, speaking of the diamond, asserted that this gem is sometimes born in the mines of crystals, in this verse:
Book 5. chap. 84.

Born from crystals, or taken from mines.

Equivocations of "metal."

Therefore, just as metalla mines in Polybius are tunnels adapted for overturning cities because they are assimilated to the mines of metals, sometimes the word "metal" signifies gold, perhaps by antonomasia. Therefore, Pontanus, celebrating the praises of the Hermus, a river of Lydia that carries golden sands, named the metal as gold in this manner:

Happy shores of the Hermus, enriched by metal.

Mixture of metals.

Furthermore, common people and craftsmen call a mixture of various metals, and especially those from which mortars, bells, cauldrons, and cannons are cast—as well as that mixture from which artisans craft certain mirrors—a "metal." Although afterwards, artisans use various names to distinguish this mixture according to a greater or lesser abundance of copper, so that they call the mixture which is cast for cauldrons, mortars, and bells "metal," while they designate the mixture from which war machines and statues are constructed "bronze."

Part one, chap. 11.

Moreover, according to the most learned Father Alvarez the Jesuit in his History of China, "metal" is used by the Chinese as one of the elements, since they constitute five elements: namely, Earth, Water, Fire, Wood, and Metal. Finally, "Metal," or as others write, "Tritium Metallum," is a town in Hispania Tarraconensis, about which Ptolemy is to be read. Lastly, if "metal" is taken in its proper meaning, it indicates a certain kind of fossil, which includes Gold, Silver, Copper, and others of this kind, of which we must treat more extensively in this history.

ETYMOLOGY AND SYNONYMS.

SOME confirm with one voice, among whom is numbered Ioannes Chrysippus in his History of the Metallic Art, that metals were so named from the Greek verb μεταλλάω to search or investigate, since men are accustomed to search for metals within the mines of the earth. But we should not follow this opinion, for while μεταλλάω is indeed explained as "to search," it is a metaphor taken from the miners of metals.