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Translated from the First Latin Edition of 1556 with Biographical Introduction, Annotations and Appendices upon the Development of mining methods, Metallurgical Processes, Geology, Mineralogy & Mining law from the earliest times to the 16th Century.
Dover Publications, softcover, illustrated, index, 638 pages, condition: very good.
De Re Metallica [On the Nature of Metals {or Minerals}] was the highly influential standard treatise used throughout Europe. The woodcuts detail a medieval world of machinery, industrial technique, tools, even costume and architecture, illustrating the various specialized techniques of the many branches of mining, making this book the practical reference to the latest in mining technology (in the middle ages). Also alluvial mining, alchemy, silver refining, smelting, surveying, timbering, nitric acid making, and hundreds of other phases of the medieval art of metallurgy are covered.
Herbert Hoover, and his wife Lou, a noted linguist and scholar, translating from the original Latin, filled this edition with classical references in the footnotes.
Herbert Hoover, by profession a mining engineer, was the 31st President of the United States (19291933), and a director of the Chinese Engineering and Mining Corporation (CEMC) when it became a supplier of Chinese labour for South African mines prior to 1914. The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace is located at Stanford University in California.
