Georgius Agricola

1494–1555 

The physician and humanistic scholar, Georgius Agricola, who is considered the founder of geology and mineralogy, worked in Jáchymov from 1527 to 1531. One of his many achievements was to unify the system of weights and measures used in Europe at that time. He was the first scholar to comprehensively collect the findings and mining experience that would later lay the foundations for geology and montane science.

 

The real name of this physician and humanist, whom we know by the Latinised name of Agricola, is Georg Bauer. In his work he strove to bring unity and order to the findings of the nascent sciences of his time. He originally studied philosophy and philology at the University of Leipzig, and became rector of the Latin school in Zwickau. He came to start researching the Earth later, when studying medicine in Italy. With a doctor’s degree he took the position of the town physician and pharmacist in Jáchymov in 1527, where, besides treating patients, he also sought minerals whose healing powers he knew about from ancient texts. In doing so, he made a great many findings relating to mining, as well as a valuable collection of minerals from the Jáchymov deposit. When, while preparing his medicines, he came across discrepancies in the units of measure and weight used by various authors, he decided to unify the system to make it more practical (his treatise entitled “De mensuris et ponderibus”). Jáchymov is also where he wrote his “Bermannus”, a dialogue outlining the problems with the system currently in use. He wrote his treatises in polished, humanistic Latin. In 1532 he moved for good to Chemnitz, where he penned his main works, De ortu et causis subterraneorum (On Subterranean Origins and Causes) and De natura fossilium (On the Nature of Fossils). It is here that Agricola introduces the terms subteranea and fossilia, although the term fossilia is used to refer to all “matter dug up from the ground”, i.e. not fossils in the modern sense of the word. However, amongst “stones” he also includes types referred to as Belemnites and Amonites, although to him these were not fossils, but shapes of stone that he does not consider to be of organic origin. The culmination of Agricola’s lifelong efforts to classify his findings on mining and metallurgy is his treatise entitled De re metallica libri XII (On the Nature of Metals – Twelve Books on Mining and Metallurgy).

Besides his research work, Agricola was also a prominent figure in political and cultural circles. In the complicated situation of what came to be known as the Schmalkaldic War (1546) between Emperor Charles V and the Protestant states, as a Catholic he was elected mayor of Chemnitz. He earned this position as he met the imperial requirement that the post be held by a Catholic and he was also capable of negotiating with the Protestants, to whom he was not opposed, and in fact many of his friends were members of this faith. The campaign ended in defeat for the Protestants, after which Agricola resigned as mayor and devoted himself to his writings until the end of his life. Those works comprise a unique document of the mining methods used in the 16th century and for 200 years served as the foundation for the geological sciences. In the early 18th century his work was mostly forgotten, but was again brought to the fore by the geologist Abraham Gottlob Werner (1750─1817), a proponent of Neptunism, who described Agricola as the “father of mineralogy”.

 

References

Agricola, G. Jiřího Agricoly dvanáct knih o hornictví a hutnictví. Montanex 2007. 

Agricola, G. Bermannus aneb Rozmluva o hornictví. Československá akademie věd, Praha 1953.

 

MZ