Bermannus

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Author Agricola, Georg
Full title Bermannus sive de re metallica. Ab accurata auctoris recognitione et emendatione nunc primum editus cum nomenclatura rerum metallicarum
Year 1530
Place Basel
Publisher/Printer Froben, Johann
Era 16th century
Form/Genre Dictionary/Lexicon, Dialogue
Discipline/Content Meteorology/Earth sciences
Digital copies
Original Basel 1530 (e-rara.ch), Paris 1541, Leipzig 1546 (Google Books)

Bermannus, in: Georgii Agricolae De ortu et causis subterraneorum libri V, Basel 1546 (e-rara.ch)

Digital sourcebook 598104 (Basel 1530)

705020 (Paris 1541)

705019 (Leipzig 1546)

616637, in: Georgii Agricolae De ortu causis subterraneorum libri V, Basel 1546

Description This dialogue is the first work on mining and geology by Georg Agricola. Its setting is Joachimsthal in the Ore Mountains in Saxony where Agricola worked as a physician. In the style of a Ciceronian dialogue, the work opens with an auctorial introduction, in which Agricola reflects upon the difficulties in matching the names inherited from Greek and Latin authors with the actual minerals and ores. The dialogue itself is, however, more lively than Ciceronian dialogues and resembles more a Platonic dialogue. There are three characters, Lorenz Wermann, a friend of Agricola, appears as the mining expert in a Latinized form of his name as “Bermannus”. He is the main speaker and shows the other two discussants around. His Latinized name, furthermore, reminds one of the German word for miner, “Bergmann”. The two other characters are physicians and humanists. Naevius is an expert for Greek and Latin texts. It is him with whom Bermannus discusses most of the time and his mere bookish knowledge is usually refuted by Bermannus. The third character is Ancon, who knew Bermannus before and introduces Naevius to Bermannus. Ancon is an expert in Arabic medicine but he does contribute comparably little to the discussion. Agricola himself does not appear as a character in the dialogue as it is said at the end of the fictitious dialogue that he is unfortunately absent at the time, in which the dialogue sets (p. 131). The main aim of the dialogue is to find and identify the ores and minerals mentioned in the ancient texts in order to make use of this knowledge for medical treatments.

Agricola draws from many sources, mostly of course from ancient authorities like Pliny, Theophrastus, and Discurides, but also from Arabic authors like Avicenna and Razes. At times also medieval Latin authors like Albertus Magnus or contemporary authors are mentioned. The dialogue itself is accompanied by two paratexts. The first is a letter to Andreas and Christoph von Könneritz by Erasmus of Rotterdam in which he praises the witty and yet learned content of the work (Nec satis possum dicere, maiore ne id voluptate fecerim an fructu; a2r), but especially the enargia ("graphic style") with which its various topics are described. Then follows a dedicatory letter by Petrus Plateanus to Heinrich von Könneritz, in which Plateanus highlights the importance to publish one’s findings. Appended to the dialogue is a Latin-German glossary. This glossary was created by Plateanus in the first edition, but later augmented by Agricola himself in the further editions. The work became very popular and was reprinted seven times between the first edition of 1530 and 1657. In 1546, a second, augmented edition appeared that features some slight changes in some passages Wilsdorf 1955, 42).

References Wilsdorf 1955 (modern translation and commentary).

Morello 1994

Cited in
How to cite this entry Agricola, Georg: Bermannus, in: Noscemus Wiki, URL: http://wiki.uibk.ac.at/noscemus/Bermannus (last revision: 25.07.2022).
Internal notes
Internal notes
Of interest to DB, MK
Transkribus text available Yes
Written by DB