De Re Metallica, Translated from the First Latin Edition of 1556

Agricola's Latin, while mostly free from mediæval corruption, is somewhat tainted with German construction. Moreover some portions have not the continuous flow of sustained thought which others display, but the fact that the writing of the work extended over a period of twenty years, sufficiently explains the considerable variation in style. The technical descriptions in the later books often take the form of House-that-Jack-built sentences which have had to be at least partially broken up and the subject occasionally re-introduced. Ambiguities were also sometimes found which it was necessary to carry on into the translation. Despite these criticisms we must, however, emphasize that Agricola was infinitely clearer in his style than his contemporaries upon such subjects, or for that matter than his successors in almost any language for a couple of centuries. All of the illustrations and display letters of the original have been reproduced and the type as closely approximates to the original as the printers have been able to find in a modern font.