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A pioneering work on mining

Book pages with text and illustrations

A pioneering work on mining  

De re metallica libri XII. - De animantibus subterraneis liber, 1556 

by Georgius Agricola 
published by Hieronymus Froben and Nicolaus Episcopius in Basel  

This landmark publication, which provides the first comprehensive account of mining and metallurgy, was greatly influential. For more than a century after its publication it remained a standard treatise throughout Europe. This first edition contains 273 large woodcut illustrations by Hans Rudolf Manuel Deutsch, and describes the mining industry and metallurgical processes, including administration, prospecting, duties of officials and the manufacture of glass, sulphur and alum. The German mining technology it portrays was acknowledged as the most advanced at its time. 

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