Agricola, Georgius

[person]

(aka Georg Pawer/Bauer) German geologist and medical doctor, born in Glauchau, Saxony (1494-1555). Agricola wrote several influential geological manuscripts, including De Natura Fossilium (1546), De Ortu et Causis Subterraneorum (1546) and De Re Metallica (published posthumously in 1556). The later is his most influential work, being a compendium of everything then known about mining, including (but not limited to) equipment, methods of surveying for and extracting minerals, mine administration, and the occupational diseases of miners.