APPENDIX A. - 597 



nus " was probably an adaptation by Agricola of the name of his friend Lorenz 

 Berman, a prominent miner. The book is in the main devoted to a correla- 

 tion of the minerals mentioned by the Ancients with those found in the Saxon 

 mines. This phase is interesting as indicating the natural trend of Agricola's 

 scholastic mind when he first comes into contact with the sciences to which 

 he devoted himself. The book opens with a letter of commendation from 

 Erasmus, of Rotterdam, and with the usual dedication and preface by the 

 author. The three conversationahsts are supposed to take walks among the 

 mines and to discuss, incidentally, matters which come to their attention ; 

 therefore the book has no systematic or logical arrangement. There are 

 occasional statements bearing on the history, management, titles, and methods 

 used in the mines, and on mining lore generally. The mineralogical part, while 

 of importance from the point of view of giving the first description of several 

 minerals, is immensely improved upon in De Natura Fossilium, pubhshed 

 15 years later. It is of interest to find here the first appearance of the names 

 of many minerals which we have since adopted from the German into our own 

 nomenclature. Of importance is the first description of bismuth, although, 

 as pointed out on page 433, the metal had been mentioned before. In the 

 revised collection of collateral works published in 1558, the author makes 

 many important changes and adds some new material, but some of the later 

 editions were made from the unre vised older texts. 



Rerum Metallicarum Interpretatio. This list of German equivalents 

 for Latin mineralogical terms was prepared by Agricola himself, and first 

 appears in the 1546 collection of De Ortu et Causis, De Natura Fossilium, etc., 

 being repeated in all subsequent pubhcations of these works. It consists of 

 some 500 Latin mineralogical and metallurgical terms, many of which are of 

 Agricola's own coinage. It is of great help in translation and of great value 

 in the study of mineralogic nomenclature. 



De Mensuris et Ponderibus. This work is devoted to a discussion of the 

 Greek and Roman weights and measures, with some correlation to those used 

 in Saxony. It is a careful work still much referred to by students of these 

 subjects. The first edition was pubhshed at Paris in 1533, and in the 1550 

 edition at Basel appears, for the first time, De Precio Metallorum et Monetis. 



De Veteribus et Novis Metallis. This short work comprises 31 foUo 

 pages, and first appears in the 1546 collection of collateral works. It consists 

 mainly of historical and geographical references to the occurrence of metals 

 and mines, culled from the Greek and Latin classics, together with some 

 information as to the history of the mines in Central Europe. The latter 

 is the only original material, and unfortunately is not very extensive. We 

 have incorporated some of this information in the footnotes. 



De Animantibus Subterraneis. This short work was first printed in 

 Basel, 1549, ^^^ consists of one chapter of 23 folio pages. Practically the whole 

 is devoted to the discussion of various animals who at least a portion of their 

 time five underground, such as hibernating, cave-dwelling, and burrowing 

 animals, together with cave-dwelling birds, Hzards, crocodiles, serpents, 

 etc. There are only a few lines of remote geological interest as to migration 



