Georgius Agricola De Re Metallica Translated

Name: Georgius Agricola De Re Metallica Translated
Rating: 3.52
ISBN: 9781331172185

ISBN: 9781331172185 出版年：2016 页码：681 Herbert Clark Hoover Forgotten Books

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内容简介

There are three objectives in translation of works of this character: to give a faithful, literal translation of the author's statements; to give these in a manner which will interest the reader; and to preserve, so far as is possible, the style of the original text. The task has been doubly difficult in this work because, in using Latin, the author availed himself of a medium which had ceased to expand a thousand years before his subject had in many particulars come into being; in consequence he was in difficulties with a large number of ideas for which there were no corresponding words in the vocabulary at his command, and instead of adopting into the text his native German terms, he coined several hundred Latin expressions to answer his needs. It is upon this rock that most former attempts at translation have been wrecked. Except for a very small number, we believe we have been able to discover the intended meaning of such expressions from a study of the context, assisted by a very incomplete glossary prepared by the author himself, and by an exhaustive investigation into the literature of these subjects during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. That discovery in this particular has been only gradual and obtained after much labour, may be indicated by the fact that the entire text has been re-typewritten three times since the original, and some parts more often; and further, that the printer's proof has been thrice revised. We have found some English equivalent, more or less satisfactory, for practically all such terms, except those of weights, the varieties of veins, and a few minerals. In the matter of weights we have introduced the original Latin, because it is impossible to give true equivalents and avoid the fractions of reduction; and further, as explained in the Appendix on Weights it is impossible to say in many cases what scale the Author had in mind. The English nomenclature to be adopted has given great difficulty, for various reasons; among them, that many methods and processes described have never been practised in English-speaking mining communities, and so had no representatives in our vocabulary, and we considered the introduction of German terms undesirable; other methods and processes have become obsolete and their descriptive terms with them, yet we wished to avoid the introduction of obsolete or unusual English; but of the greatest importance of all has been the necessity to avoid rigorously such modem technical terms as would imply a greater scientific understanding than the period possessed.Agricola's Latin, while mostly free from mediæval corruption, is somewhat tainted with German construction.

Amazon评论

Bruce Siegfried

Text is small and faded in sections, information is not too easy to related to in2014.

Michael B. Schiffer

Yes, it was inexpensive, but it is almost impossible to use because the font is small, the print is light, there is no information on the spine, and the margins at the spine are so narrow that the binding would have to be broken to make it readable. But it was a very cheap reprint, so I got what I paid for. I also complained to the publisher but got no reply.

Stoney

This is one of the great classics, richly illustrated with over 200 woodcuts, most full page. It was published in 1556 by Georgius Agricola. The English translation is by former U.S. President Herbert Hoover, and first Lady Lou. Virtually all of the equipment illustrated was current until a few decades ago. Agricola describes and illustrates such "modern" methods as amalgamation, and the use of spiral inclines for transporting heavy equipment from the surface to underground. The (unnamed) "books" (chapters) which compose the book could be titled: 1 The Social Impact of Mining; 2 Mine Management, Exploration, and Prospecting; 3 The Theory of Ore Deposits; 4 Mining Law; 5 Shaft Sinking, Drifting, and Surveying; 6 Mining Equipment, Haulage, Dewatering, Ventilation, and Hazards; 7: Assaying; 8 Beneficiation; 9 Smelting; 10 Separation of Gold from Silver and Silver Refining; 11 Separation of Gold and Silver from Copper and Iron and Copper Refining; 12 Industrial Mineral, Chemical, and Glass Production. The text is a bit dense, but is worth the trouble. > Click on “Stoney” just below the product title to see my other reviews, or leave a comment to ask a question.

Melinda Johnson

De re metallica (Latin for On the Nature of Metals (Minerals)) is a book cataloging the state of the art of mining, refining, and smelting metals, published in 1556. The author was Georg Bauer, whose pen name was the Latinized Georgius Agricola. The book remained the authoritative text on mining for 250 years after its publication. In 1912, the first English translation of De Re Metallica was privately published in London by subscription. The translators were Herbert Hoover, a mining engineer (and later President of the United States), and his wife, Lou Henry Hoover, a geologist and Latinist. The translation is notable not only for its clarity of language, but for the extensive footnotes, which detail the classical references to mining and metals, such as the Natural History of Pliny the Elder, the history of mining law in England, France, and the German states; safety in mines, including historical safety; and known minerals at the time that Agricola wrote De Re Metallica. Subsequent translations into other languages, including German, owe much to the Hoover translations, as their footnotes detail their difficulties with Agricola's baroque vocabulary.(Wikipedia)

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