XXX. PREFACE 



a discourse on the finding of veins. Tlie third book deals with veins and 

 stringers, and seams in the roclis. The fourth book explains the method of 

 delimiting veins, and also describes the functions of the mining officials. 

 The fifth book describes the digging of ore and the surveyor's art. The 

 sixth book describes the miners' tools and machines. The seventh book is 

 on the assaying of ore. The eighth book lays down the rules for the work of 

 roasting, crushing, and washing the ore. The ninth book explains the 

 methods of smelting ores. The tenth book instructs those who are studious 

 of the metallic arts in the work of separating silver from gold, and lead from 

 gold and silver. The eleventh book shows the way of separating silver from 

 copper. 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 account 

 of the great magnitude of the subject, I have, at all events, endeavoured to fulfil 

 it, for I have devoted much labour and care, and have even gone to some 

 expense upon it ; for with regard to the veins, tools, vessels, sluices, machines, 

 and furnaces, I have not only described them, but have also hired illustrators 

 to delineate their forms, lest descriptions which are conveyed by words 

 should either not be understood by men of our own times, or should cause 

 difficulty to posterity, in the same way as to us difficulty is often caused by 

 many names which the Ancients (because such words were familiar to all of 

 them) 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 " still remain unpublished in the King of France's library.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 largely 

 commentaries on Plato and Aristotle ; he is sometimes accredited with being the first to 

 describe white arsenic (arsenical oxide). The full title of the work styled " Stephanus to 

 Heracleus 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 the 

 7th 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 and 

 Metallurgy that we discuss his book at length in Appendix B. Late criticism indicates that this 

 work was not the production of an 8th Century Arab, but a compilation of some Latin scholar 

 of 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 published 

 in Lyons in 1504 ; many of them have apparently never been printed, for references may be 

 found to some 18 different works. Raymond Lully, a Spaniard, born in 1235, who 

 was a disciple of Arnold de Villa Nova, was stoned to death in Africa in 1315. There are 

 extant over 100 works attributed to this author, although again the habit of disciples of writing 

 under the master's name may be responsible for most of these. John Aurelio Augurello was 

 an Italian Classicist, born in Rimini about 1453. Thework referred to, Chrysopoeia ei Geronlica 

 is a poem on the art of making gold, etc., published in Venice, 1515, and re-published 

 frequently 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 omits 

 from 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 Ortii et Causis he expends much thought on refutation of theories advanced by Avicenna 

 and Albertus, but of the others we have found no mention, although their work is, from a 

 chemical point of view, of considerable importance. 



