Georgius Agricola De re metallica : translated from the 1st Latin edition of 1556, with biographical introduction, annotations and appendices upon the development of mining methods, metallurgical processes, geology, mineralogy & mining law, from the earliest times to the 16th century / by Herbert Clark Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover.

Unabridged Dover (1986) republication of the 1912 edition" --P. [4] of cover.. "This new 1950 edition of De re metallica is a complete and unchanged reprint of the translation published by The mining magazine, London, in 1912"--T.p. verso.. 'Translated from the first Latin edition of 1556 with biographical introduction, annotations and appendices upon the development of mining methods, metallurgical processes, geology, mineralogy and mining law from the earliest times to the 16th century by Herbert Clark Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover.'

'Originally published in 1556, [it] was the first book on mining to be based on field research and observation--what today would be called the "scientific approach." It was therefore the first book to offer detailed technical drawings to illustrate the various specialized techniques of the many branches of mining, and the first to provide a realistic history of mining from antiquity to the mid-sixteenth century....In 1912, the book was translated by former President Herbert Clark Hoover and his wife....quickly bought up by book collectors, historians, and medievalists....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 the medieval art of metallurgy.'

Paperback