TRANSLATORS’ PREFACE.

On the other hand, the small army of writers prior to his time were not much interested in the description of industrial pursuits. Moreover, in those thousands of years before printing, the tedious and expensive process of transcribing manuscripts by hand was mostly applied to matters of more general interest; consequently, many writings may have been lost. In fact, such was the fate of the works of Theophrastus and Strato on these subjects. Theophrastus and Strato were ancient Greek scholars whose treatises on mineralogy and natural history are largely lost to us.

We have prepared a short sketch of Agricola’s life and times, not only to give some indication of his learning and character but also to show his considerable position in the community in which he lived. As no appreciation of Agricola’s stature among the founders of science can be gained without considering the advancement his works display over those of his predecessors, we devote some attention to the state of knowledge at that time. We do this by providing in the Appendix a short review of the literature then extant and a summary of Agricola’s other writings. To serve the bibliophile, we present such data as we have been able to collect regarding the various editions of his works. The full titles of the works quoted in the footnotes under the authors’ names will be found in this Appendix.

We feel that it is scarcely doing Agricola justice to publish De Re Metallica alone. While it is the most generally interesting of all his works, from the point of view of pure science, De Natura Fossilium On the Nature of Minerals and De Ortu et Causis On the Origin and Causes of Subterranean Things are works that deserve an equally important place. It is unfortunate that Agricola’s own countrymen have not given the world competent translations into German, as his work has too often been judged by German translations, the unfaithfulness of which appears in nearly every paragraph.

We do not present De Re Metallica as a work of “practical” value. The methods and processes have long since been superseded. Yet, surely such a milestone on the road of development for one of the two most basic human industrial activities Referring to agriculture and mining. is more worthy of preservation than the thousands of volumes devoted to records of human destruction. To those interested in the history of their own profession, we need make no apologies, except for the long delay in publication. For this, we put forward the necessity of active endeavor in many directions; as this book could be but a labor of love, it had to find moments for its execution in night hours, weekends, and holidays, in all extending over a period of about five years. If the work serves to strengthen the traditions of one of the world's most important and least recognized professions, we shall be amply repaid.

It is our pleasure to acknowledge our obligations to Professor H. R. Fairclough, of Stanford University, for his perusal of and suggestions upon the first chapter, and to those whom we have engaged from time to time for one service or another, chiefly bibliographical work and collateral translation. We are also sensibly obligated to the printers, Messrs. Frost & Sons, for their patience and interest, and for their willingness to bend some of the canons of modern printing to meet the demands of the 16th century.