De Re Metallica, Hard Rock Tunnel
Woodcut from Agricola's, De Re Metallica. Fire setting at the face of a hard rock tunnel. At the top a man holds a stick in a foot vise while shaving it with a tool similar to that shown on the ground. In the tunnel the sticks and logs have been kindled. The miner holds a lamp in his right hand and protects his face with his left. Georgius Agricola (March 24, 1494 - November 21, 1555) was a German scholar known as "the father of mineralogy". His book De Re Metallica, published in 1556, was a treatise on mining and extractive metallurgy, illustrated with woodcuts illustrating processes to extract ores from the ground and metal from the ore, and the many uses of water mills in mining. Agricola described and illustrated how ore veins occur in and on the ground, making the work an early contribution to the developing science of geology. He described prospecting for ore veins and surveying in great detail, as well as washing the ores to collect the heavier valuable minerals, such as gold and tin. It was also an important chemistry text for the period and is significant in the history of chemistry. De re metallica is considered a classic document of Renaissance metallurgy, unsurpassed for two centuries.
Size: 3794px × 3600px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -, 1550s, 1556, 16th, agricola, art, artwork, bauer, bw, century, de, drawing, european, famous, father, fire, foot, geology, georg, georgius, german, hard, historic, historical, history, illustration, important, kindling, lamp, metallica, metallurgy, metals, miner, mineralogy, minerals, mining, nature, notable, pawer, renaissance, rock, scholar, science, shaft, tunnel, tunneling, tunnelling, ventilation, vise, woodblock, woodcut
