GEORGIUS AGRICOLA (1494–1555)
Origin and Education
Georgius Agricola was born as Georg Bauer on 24 March 1494 in the Saxon town of Glauchau, the capital of the County of Schönburg. His surname, both in German and in its Latinized form, means “farmer”.
He began his schooling in Glauchau and later attended the Latin school in Zwickau. Afterwards he studied at the University of Leipzig, where he focused on philology, philosophy and theology. After completing these studies he continued at the same university with medicine and natural sciences. During his studies he Latinized his name to Georgius Agricola.
Teaching Career
In 1518, at the request of Stephan Roth, rector of the Latin school in Zwickau, Agricola was appointed teacher of Greek. After Roth left for Jáchymov, Agricola became rector of the school and led it until 1522.
Study Travels
In 1524 Agricola set out on a study journey across Europe. He visited Basel, Bologna, Venice and Ferrara and obtained a doctorate in medicine at one of these universities. He returned to Leipzig in 1526.
Work in Jáchymov
Agricola came to Jáchymov in 1527 as municipal physician and pharmacist. He replaced Dr. Georg Sturtz, founder of the Jáchymov pharmacy, which is considered the oldest pharmacy in the territory of the present Czech Republic.
In Jáchymov he became friends with the town clerk Bartholomew Bach and the smelting inspector Laurentius Bermann, who was well versed in science, mining and metallurgy. From them Agricola gained extensive knowledge about the town and its mineral wealth.
He worked in Jáchymov until 1530, when he moved to Chemnitz. Even after leaving the town he maintained lively correspondence with Jáchymov and often returned to visit.
Life in Chemnitz
In 1533 Agricola became a pharmacist in Chemnitz and served as mayor of the town between 1533 and 1552. Remarkably, he held this position as a Catholic in a predominantly Protestant city, which demonstrates the respect he commanded.
When the plague broke out in Saxony in 1553, he devoted himself entirely to medical work and established a hospital in Chemnitz.
Although during his stay in Jáchymov he had acquired several mining shares, including a share in the Boží Dar mine in Abertamy, he suffered financial difficulties at the end of his life because he invested much of his money in publishing his books and scientific works.
He was married twice and three of his sons became canons in Erfurt. Although he sympathized with Protestantism in his youth, he remained a Catholic throughout his life.
Death
Georgius Agricola died after four days of fever on 21 November 1555. The Protestant pastor Tittelbach in Chemnitz refused to bury Agricola because he was a Catholic. Therefore, after five days his body was buried in the castle chapel in Zeitz.
Significance
Georgius Agricola is regarded as the founder of modern mineralogy, geology and mining science. Through his work he also indirectly laid the foundations for mining education, including the later mining school in Jáchymov, the first institution of its kind in the world.
His name is included among the seventy-two figures of Czech history whose names appear beneath the windows of the National Museum in Prague. Jan Amos Comenius placed him alongside Pythagoras and Archimedes in his work Didactica Magna (1657).
Works
Bermannus sive de re metallica dialogus (Bermannus, or Dialogue on Mining)
This work is a fictional dialogue between Agricola’s friend Bermann and two learned physicians – the municipal physicists Dr. Jan Niavius, later personal physician to the Elector of Saxony, and Dr. Nicholas Ancon, personal physician to Count Schlik. They are described as arriving from the deathbed of Heinrich Schlik. In the form of a Platonic dialogue Bermann introduces them to Jáchymov, its mines and its wealth. Niavius compares the town to important European cities such as Bologna, Paris, Erfurt and Padua. Agricola also recalls Bermann and Bach, who introduced him to the secrets of mining. He further describes other mining towns of the Ore Mountains and older mines in Bohemia and Saxony. Later parts of the work deal with mineralogy and geology.
The book was published in Basel under the patronage of Erasmus of Rotterdam. Agricola was persuaded to publish it by his friend Petr Plateanus, rector of the Latin school in Jáchymov.
De varia temperie sive constitutione aeris (1532) – Treatise on the nature and constitution of air.
De mensuris et ponderibus Romanorum atque Graecorum libri V – On ancient Roman and Greek systems of weights and measures, written at a time when measurement systems were not unified.
De externis mensuris et ponderibus libri II – On foreign weights and measures.
De precio metallorum et monetis – Comparison of the prices of metals and coins.
Libellus de prima ac simplici institutione grammatica – A small Latin grammar published in Leipzig in 1520 by the publisher Lotter.
De ortu et causis subterraneorum libri V (1544) – On the origin and causes of underground phenomena.
De natura eorum quae effluunt e terra (1545) – On substances that flow out of the earth.
De natura fossilium libri X (1546) – Ten books on the nature of fossils and minerals.
De motu et de natura eorum quae effluunt ex terra – Analysis of the causes of changes in the Earth’s crust. Agricola classifies natural substances according to their properties into five categories, representing one of the earliest attempts at a systematic classification of natural materials and forming an early basis of modern geology.
De veteribus et novis metallis libri II – A topography of European ore mining and a study of ore deposits, supplemented with a glossary in Latin and German.
De medicatis fontibus – On medicinal springs, including the hot springs of Karlovy Vary. Agricola attributed their origin to enormous underground fires. This work was never printed.
De terrae motu – A treatise on earthquakes, also unpublished.
De animalibus subterraneis libri II (1548) – On subterranean animals and underground life, based on discoveries of fossils and petrifactions.
Topographie von Meissen und Geschichte des Sachsenstammes – Topography of Meissen and history of the Saxon people, completed in 1544 but not published because Agricola did not receive the promised financial support from the Saxon court.
De metallis et machinis (1543) – Description of mining equipment and machines. The work once formed part of the Latin library in Jáchymov but was later sold by the town to the United States and is now considered lost.
Interpretatio germanica vocum rei metallicae (1546) – Published in Basel by the Froben printing house. It contains 487 pages of text and an additional 51 pages of index and is considered a precursor of modern multilingual technical dictionaries.
Commentarii libri VI in quibus utriusque linguae scriptorum locos difficiles de rebus subterraneis explicantur (1549) – Explanation of difficult passages in the works of ancient natural philosophers dealing with underground phenomena.
De peste – A book on the plague written after the epidemic in Saxony in 1553, when Agricola worked as a physician and operated a hospital in Chemnitz.
The most important and probably best-known work of Agricola is De re metallica libri XII (Twelve Books on Mining), published after his death in 1556. In this work Agricola describes mines, mining technology, ventilation systems, drainage, mining machinery and the organisation of mining operations. He also addresses the social status of miners and their wages. The illustrations were created by the artist B. Weffringer.
The book represents a comprehensive summary of mining knowledge of its time and of Agricola’s own observations. For more than two centuries it served as the fundamental handbook of European mining. It was published thirty-three times in eleven languages. In Czech it appeared in 1933 and again in 1996.
Agricola dedicated the work to the Saxon rulers and wrote in its introduction:
“I could not bring or write anything that I did not know myself or had not learned from trustworthy men.”
