Agricola, Georgius

Agricola, Georgius gāˈôrk bouˈər [key], 1494–1555, German physician and scientist, known as the father of mineralogy. He was a pioneer in physical geology and the first to classify minerals scientifically. His celebrated work De re metallica (1556) was a standard in metallurgy and mining for over a century and was translated into English (1912) by Herbert C. Hoover and Lou H. Hoover.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: Metallurgy and Mining: Biographies