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Front page, forword and index

Front page, forword and index Page of 251 Front page, forword and index Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
VI
DE NATURA FOSSILIUM
heavy with philosophical reasoning directed toward supporting prior authorities and contemporary religious dogmas.
In the course of a thorough classical education in Germany and Italy Agricola became acquainted with the writings of Greek and Roman au­thors as well as the rather sterile works of the Dark and Middle Ages. Having a professional and natural interest in minerals, rocks and earths, it is particularly fortunate that he was destined to take up residence in a booming mining district. During his study of the mineral wealth opening before his eyes even the most cursory observations could not fail to demon­strate the fallacies of many of the old theories accepted as valid by his contemporaries. Although he held the opinions of many of the older writers in high esteem he was constantly testing them on the touchstone of ob­servation and experience and discarding those proven to be erroneous.
Prior to the publication of De Natura Fossilium few writers had at­tempted to classify minerals. The common practice was to either list all minerals alphabetically or first describe the more common and better known minerals and then list the remaining in alphabetical order. Without the sister sciences of chemistry and crystallography the only basis for a classification in the sixteenth century was the physical properties and, with the exception of color, little attention was given to these properties. Agricola, with the opportunity and desire to study the physical properties of minerals by observation, was able to work backward through the litera­ture and separate many facts about minerals from the mass of fantasies of the earlier writers. The work De Architectura by Vitruvius proved to be particularly valuable. As a result of these studies he was the first to propose a systematic mineral classification, one based upon observed physical properties. It is for this contribution in De Natura Fossilium that he is justly known as the Father of Mineralogy. Although physical properties can be used for the sight identification of minerals, unfortunate­ly they cannot serve as the basis for an adequate classification and his effort was doomed to failure, particularly since he was confined within the framework of the concept of the four Peripatetic elements. This does not detract, in any manner, from Agricola's contributions, especially when we judge them against the background of the general level of learning in his day and when we realize that it was not until the end of the eighteenth century, over two hundred years later, that the next important advances in mineralogy were to be made.
Agricola recognized and used all the physical properties of minerals known to present day mineralogists. The outline of his classification is as follows:
Non-Composite Minerals Simple
Earths
Congealed Juices Harsh
Front page, forword and index Page of 251 Front page, forword and index
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