Agricola, Georgius (1490–1555)

German physician and metallurgist. He wrote on a range of topics from Latin grammar (1520) to the plague (De Pestis, 1544) via (following Budeaus' example) weights and measures (De Mensuris et Ponderibus, 1533). He first published on metallurgy in his Bermannus sive de re metallica (1530); he recorded developments in mining technology in his De re metallica/On Metals (1556), illustrated with woodcuts.

Agricola was born at Glauchau in Saxony and trained as a doctor. Working as a physician in a Bohemian mining town, he quickly made himself an authority on mining, metal extraction, smelting, assaying, and related chemical processes. His ‘De natura fossilium/The Nature of Fossils’ (1546) advances a comprehensive classifications of minerals. He went on to explore the origins of rocks, mountains, and volcanoes.