614

APPENDIX B.

The book is diffuse and confused, and without arrangement or system, yet a littleconsideration enables one of experience to understand most statements. There are over 120recipes, with, as said before, much repetition ; for instance, the parting of gold and silverby use of sulphur is given eight times in different places. The final line of the book is : “ Takethis in good part, dear reader, after it, please God, there will be a better.” In truth, however,there are books on assaying four centuries younger that are worse. This is, without doubt,the first written word on assaying, and it displays that art already full grown, so far as con-cerns gold and silver, and to some extent copper and lead; for if we eliminate the wordsdependent on the atomic theory from modern works on dry assaying, there has been but veryminor progress. The art could not, however, have reached this advanced stage but by slowaccretion, and no doubt this collection of recipes had been handed from father to son longbefore the 16th century. It is of wider interest that these booklets represent the first milestoneon the road to quantitative analysis, and in this light they have been largely ignored by thehistorians of chemistry. Internal evidence in Book VII. of De Re Metallica, together withthe reference in the Preface, leave little doubt that Agricola was familiar with these book-lets. His work, however, is arranged more systematically, each operation stated more clearly,with more detail and fresh items ; and further, he gives methods of determining copper andlead which are but minutely touched upon in the Probierbuchlein, while the directions as to tin,bismuth, quicksilver, and iron are entirely new.

Biringuccio (Vanuccio). We practically know nothing about this author. From thepreface to the first edition of his work it appears he was styled a mathematician, but in thetext 14 he certainly states that he was most of his time engaged in metallurgical operations,and that in pursuit of such knowledge he had visited Germany. The work was in Italian,published at Venice in 1540, the title page of the first edition as below :—

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LIBR.I.X.DOVE AMPIAMENte fi tracts non folo di ogni forte 66 di,uerfita di Miniere, ma anchora quantofi ricerca intornoa la prattica diquelle cofe di quel che fi appartienea Parte de la fufioneouergittodemetallicome d’ogni altra cofa iimile aquefta. Compofli per il, S.Vanoocio Biringuccio Sennefe.

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14 Book I., Chap. 2.