On the Nature of Metals

The land is fruitful in people, and the land is rich in wealth.
Here, a golden aura shines forth in rich veins;
No other place holds a harvest more dear.
Blessed Campania A fertile region in Italy, famously praised by Roman poets. may have produced the gold-haired branch original: "Auricomum... ramum" — a reference to the "Golden Bough" from Virgil's Aeneid, which allowed Aeneas to enter the underworld.,
Yet it does not fall away from us, for our fruit never fails.
At this time, the miner original: "foſſor" — literally "digger." digs out solid masses of silver,
And the soldier takes up arms from his own fields.
There is a metal unknown to the Greeks and the Westerners,
Which the mother tongue German calls Bismuth.
Whiter than black lead lead, but blacker than white lead tin,
Our soil also pours this forth from a rich vein.
Bronze is cast into war-engines that imitate the flashing lightning,
And masses of iron are hurled against the homes of enemies.
Books are written with lead: who believed this possible before
The German lands gave us this wonderful art? A reference to the invention of the printing press using movable type made of a lead alloy.
Yet these metals are not sought from other shores,
For all these metals are dug from German soil.
But why do I repeat these things, which have been handed down in the
famous monuments of AGRICOLA, which now fly through learned mouths?
He adds the causes of their origin and their forms to their powers,
And tells us in which places the better ones should be sought.
If you, dear reader, have previously read these things with a fair mind:
Give a little time now to the rest of the books as well.
Profit follows the one who cultivates this knowledge: believe me, the
pleasure of the reader will be no less delightful for being rare.
And let no one first wrongly condemn with an unfair judgment
Those things which are the wonderful gifts of God the Creator:
For God himself first snatches the weapons from his enemies,
And twists the seized arrows back against the head of the sender.
The thief is carried by a horse, the pirate is carried by a galley:
Therefore, must the horse be killed, or the ship not be built?
Should the hidden metals lie concealed in the bowels of the earth
Simply because a wicked crowd does not know how to use its own wealth?
Whoever you are, either obey the learned who advise you,
Or do not claim a place for yourself among good men.
The bold miner does not throw himself into broken precipices,
As once the fierce Curtius did on his spurred horse; Marcus Curtius was a legendary Roman hero who sacrificed himself by leaping into a chasm in the Roman Forum to save the city.
But he first learns what must be known by an expert,
And what he does, he does as one learned through much art.
And just as a pilot watches the winds by the stars:
So the miner uses signs that are by no means doubtful.
The son of Iasus original: "Iaſides" — likely referring to Palinurus, the famous pilot from the Aeneid. steers the ship, Metiscus The charioteer of Turnus in the Aeneid. guides the chariot by art:
The miner performs his work with no less art.
He tracks the extent of the vein, its number, and its measurement,
Whether it holds its course obliquely or straight.