Georgius Agricola (1494-1555) I have omitted all those things which I have not myself seen, or have not read or heard of from persons upon whom I can rely. That which I have neither seen, nor carefully considered after reading or hearing of, I have not written about. The same rule must be understood with regard to all my instruction, whether I enjoin things which ought to be done, or describe ...

GEORGIUS AGRICOLA (1494-1555) De Re Metallica. Basel: J. Froben and N. Episopius, 1556. De Re Metallica is Agricola's best known work. It is a systematic examination of mining and metallurgy as practiced in the sixteenth-century mining center of Joachimsthal in Czechoslovakia. Agricola was a medical doctor there and observed at first hand the mining operations commonly used as well as the ill ...