Georgius agricola biography books

Georgius Agricola wrote the book De Re Metallica, a truly original and valuable work that discussed everything known about mining in the first half of the sixteenth century. In De Re Metallica, Agricola reviewed practical means of finding ores, methods of surveying and mining, the assaying of ores, types and uses of mining machinery, mine administration, and much more.

De Re Metallica was the first book on mining based on field research and observation, the first to use detailed drawings to illustrate specialized methods of working in mines, and the first to provide a realistic history of mining from antiquity to the mid-sixteenth century.​

De Re Metallica was written in Latin and almost immediately translated into German, Italian, and French.

It remained the most authoritative reference for miners for 200 years. In 1912, Herbert and Lou Hoover, who are previous inductees into the National Mining Hall of Fame, translated and published a great English version of De Re Metal