2. Mineral {

bodies { { { B. Mixtures. Being homogenous mixtures of (a) [5] _Experiendae_--"a trial." That actual assaying in its technical sense is meant, is sufficiently evident from Book VII. [6] _... plumbum ... candidum ac cinereum vel nigrum_. "Lead ... white, or ash-coloured, or black." Agricola himself coined the term _plumbum cinereum_ for bismuth, no doubt following the Roman term for tin--_plumbum candidum_. The following passage from _Bermannus_ (p. 439) is of interest, for it appears to be the first description of bismuth, although mention of it occurs in the _Nuetzlich Bergbuechlin_ (see Appendix B). "_Bermannus_: I will show you another kind of mineral which is numbered amongst metals, but appears to me to have been unknown to the Ancients; we call it _bisemutum_. _Naevius_: Then in your opinion there are more kinds of metals than the seven commonly believed? _Bermannus_: More, I consider; for this which just now I said we called _bisemutum_, cannot correctly be called _plumbum candidum_ (tin), nor _nigrum_ (lead), but is different from both and is a third one. _Plumbum candidum_ is whiter and _plumbum nigrum_ is darker, as you see. _Naevius_: We see that this is of the colour of _galena_. _Ancon_: How then can _bisemutum_, as you call it, be distinguished from _galena_? _Bermannus_: Easily; when you take it in your hands it stains them with black, unless it is quite hard. The hard kind is not friable like _galena_, but can be cut. It is blacker than the kind of _rudis_ silver which we say is almost the colour of lead, and thus is different from both. Indeed, it not rarely contains some silver. It generally indicates that there is silver beneath the place where it is found, and because of this our miners are accustomed to call it the 'roof of silver.' They are wont to roast this mineral, and from the better part they make metal; from the poorer part they make a pigment of a kind not to be despised." [7] _Nitrum._ The Ancients comprised many salts under this head, but Agricola in the main uses it for soda, although sometimes he includes potash. He usually, however, refers to potash as _lixivium_ or salt therefrom, and by other distinctive terms. For description of method of manufacture and discussion, see Book XII., p. 558. [8] _Atramentum sutorium_--"Shoemaker's blacking." See p. 572 for description of method of manufacture and historical footnote. In the main Agricola means green vitriol, but he does describe three main varieties, green, blue, and white (_De Natura Fossilium_, p. 219). The blue was of course copper sulphate, and it is fairly certain that the white was zinc vitriol. [9] _Lavandi_--"Washing." By this term the author includes all the operations of sluicing, buddling, and wet concentration generally. There is no English equivalent of such wide application, and there is some difficulty in interpretation without going further than the author intends. Book VIII. is devoted to the subject. [10] _Operam et oleum perdit_--"loss of labour and oil." [11] In _Veteribus et Novis Metallis_, and _Bermannus_, Agricola states that the mines of Schemnitz were worked 800 years before that time (1530), or about 750 A.D., and, further, that the lead mines of Goslar in the Hartz were worked by Otho the Great (936-973), and that the silver mines at Freiberg were discovered during the rule of Prince Otho (about 1170). To continue the argument to-day we could add about 360 years more of life to the mines of Goslar and Freiberg. See also Note 16, p. 36, and note 19, p. 37. [12] Xenophon. Essay on the Revenues of Athens, I., 5. [13] Ovid, _Metamorphoses_, I., 137 to 143. [14] Diogenes Laertius, II., 5. The lines are assigned, however, to Philemon, not Euripides. (Kock, _Comicorum Atticorum Fragmenta_ II., 512). [15] We have not considered it of sufficient interest to cite the references to all of the minor poets and those whose preserved works are but fragmentary. The translations from the Greek into Latin are not literal and suffer again by rendering into English; we have however considered it our duty to translate Agricola's view of the meaning. [16] Diogenes Laertius, II. [17] An inspection of the historical incidents mentioned here and further on, indicates that Agricola relied for such information on Diogenes Laertius, Plutarch, Livy, Valerius Maximus, Pliny, and often enough on Homer, Horace, and Virgil. [18] Juvenal. _Satires_ I., l. 112, and VI., l. 298. [19] Pliny, XXXIV., 39. [20] Horace. _Odes_, I., 35, ll. 17-20. [21] Horace. _Satires_, II., 3, ll. 99-102. [22] Virgil. _AEneid_, III., l. 55, and I., l. 349. [23] Horace. _Satires_, I., l. 73; and Epistle, I., 10, l. 47. [25] Theognis. Maxims, II., l. 210. [26] Pindar. _Olymp._ II., 58-60. [27] Antiphanes, 4. [28] _Jurati Venditores_--"Sworn brokers." (?) [29] There is no doubt that Thucydides had some connection with gold mines; he himself is the authority for the statement that he worked mines in Thrace. Agricola seems to have obtained his idea that Thucydides held an appointment from the Athenians in charge of mines in Thasos, from Marcellinus (_Vita_, Thucydides, 30), who also says that Thucydides obtained possession of mines in Thrace through his marriage with a Thracian woman, and that it was while residing on the mines at Scapte-Hyle that he wrote his history. Later scholars, however, find little warrant for these assertions. The gold mines of Thasos--an island off the mainland of Thrace--are frequently mentioned by the ancient authors. Herodotus, VI., 46-47, says:--"Their (the Thasians') revenue was derived partly from their possessions upon the mainland, partly from the mines which they owned. They were masters of the gold mines of Scapte-Hyle, the yearly produce of which amounted to eighty talents. Their mines in Thasos yielded less, but still were so prolific that besides being entirely free from land-tax they had a surplus of income derived from the two sources of their territory on the mainland and their mines, in common years two hundred and in best years three hundred talents. I myself have seen the mines in question. By far the most curious of them are those which the Phoenicians discovered at the time when they went with Thasos and colonized the island, which took its name from him. These Phoenician workings are in Thasos itself, between Coenyra and a place called Aenyra over against Samothrace; a high mountain has been turned upside down in the search for ores." (Rawlinson's Trans.). The occasion of this statement of Herodotus was the relations of the Thasians with Darius (521-486 B.C.). The date of the Phoenician colonization of Thasos is highly nebular--anywhere from 1200 to 900 B.C. [30] Agricola, _De Veteribus et Novis Metallis_, Book I., p. 392, says:--"Conrad, whose nickname in former years was 'pauper,' suddenly became rich from the silver mines of Mount Jura, known as the _Firstum_." He was ennobled with the title of Graf Cuntz von Glueck by the Emperor Maximilian (who was Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, 1493-1519). Conrad was originally a working miner at Schneeberg where he was known as Armer Cuntz (poor Cuntz or Conrad) and grew wealthy from the mines of Fuerst in Leberthal. This district is located in the Vosges Mountains on the borders of Lorraine and Upper Alsace. The story of Cuntz or Conrad von Glueck is mentioned by Albinus (_Meissnische Land und Berg Chronica_, Dresden, 1589, p. 116), Mathesius (_Sarepta_, Nuremberg, 1578, fol. XVI.), and by others. [31] Vladislaus III. was King of Poland, 1434-44, and also became King of Hungary in 1440. Tursius seems to be a Latinized name and cannot be identified.