XXX.

PREFACE

a discourse on the finding of veins. The third book deals with veins andstringers, and seams in the rocks. The fourth book explains the method ofdelimiting veins, and also describes the functions of the mining officials.The fifth book describes the digging of ore and the surveyor’s art. Thesixth book describes the miners’ tools and machines. The seventh book ison the assaying of ore. The eighth book lays down the rules for the work ofroasting, crushing, and washing the ore. The ninth book explains themethods of smelting ores. The tenth book instructs those who are studiousof the metallic arts in the work of separating silver from gold, and lead fromgold and silver. The eleventh book shows the way of separating silver fromcopper. The twelfth book gives us rules for manufacturing salt, soda, alum,vitriol, sulphur, bitumen, and glass.

Although I have not fulfilled the task which I have undertaken, on accountof the great magnitude of the subject, I have, at all events, endeavoured to fulfilit, for I have devoted much labour and care, and have even gone to someexpense upon it; for with regard to the veins, tools, vessels, sluices, machines,and furnaces, I have not only described them, but have also hired illustratorsto delineate their forms, lest descriptions which are conveyed by wordsshould either not be understood by men of our own times, or should causedifficulty to posterity, in the same way as to us difficulty is often caused bymany names which the Ancients (because such words were familiar to all ofthem) have handed down to us without any explanation.

I have omitted all those things which I have not myself seen, or have

“ as perhaps to have been used in the antediluvian age. Of this opinion was Zosimus the" Panopolite, whose Greek writings, though known as long as before the year 1550 to George“Agricola, and afterwards perused . . . . by Jas. Scaliger and Olaus Borrichius,

“ still remain unpublished in the King of France’s library. In one of these, entitled, ' The“ Instruction of Zosimus the Panopolite and Philosopher, out of those written to Theosebeia,“ etc. . . .’ Olympiodorus was an Alexandrian of the 5th Century, whose writings were largelycommentaries on Plato and Aristotle ; he is sometimes accredited with being the first todescribe white arsenic (arsenical oxide). The full title of the work styled “Stephanus toHeracleus Caesar,” as published in Latin at Padua in 1573, was “ Stephan of Alexandria, the“ Universal Philosopher and Master, his nine processes on the great art of making gold and" silver, addressed to the Emperor Heraclius.” He, therefore, if authentic, dates in the7th Century.

To the next class belong those of the Middle Ages, which we give in order of date.The works attributed to Geber play such an important part in the history of Chemistry andMetallurgy that we discuss his book at length in Appendix B. Late criticism indicates that thiswork was not the production of an 8th Century Arab, but a compilation of some Latin scholarof the 12th or 13th Centuries. Arnold de Villa Nova, born about 1240, died in 1313,was celebrated as a physician, philosopher, and chemist; his first works were publishedin Lyons in 1504; many of them have apparently never been printed, for references may befound to some 18 different works. Raymond Lully, a Spaniard, born in 1235, whowas a disciple of Arnold de Villa Nova, was stoned to death in Africa in 1315. There areextant over 100 works attributed to this author, although again the habit of disciples of writingunder the master’s name may be responsible for most of these. John Aurelio Augurellowasan Italian Classicist, born in Rimini about 1453. The work referred to, Chrysopoeia et Geronticais a poem on the art of making gold, etc., published in Venice, 1515, and re-publishedfrequently thereafter ; it is much quoted by Alchemists. With regard to Merlin, as satis-factory an account as any of this truly English magician may be found in Mark Twain’s" Yankee at the Court of King Arthur.” It is of some interest to note that Agricola omitsfrom his list Avicenna (980-1037 a.d.), Roger Bacon (1214-1294), Albertus Magnus (1193-1280), Basil Valentine (end 15th century ?), and Paracelsus, a contemporary of his own.In De Ortu et Causis he expends much thought on refutation of theories advanced by Avicennaand Albertus, but of the others we have found no mention, although their work is, from achemical point of view, of considerable importance.