De mineralibus (Albertus Magnus)
De mineralibus (Alberto Magno)
- Date
- c. 1260 · confidence medium
- Place
- Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
- Credited to
- Albertus Magnus
- People
- 👤 Alberto Magno1193–1280
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Albertus Magnus gathered in this book what was known about stones and metals from Aristotle, Avicenna and his own observation in mines and quarries of the Rhine. He discusses how minerals form from exhalations within the earth and rejects several magical virtues.
Composed around 1250-1260; it takes much of its theory from Avicenna's text on stones, translated into Latin as 'De congelatione et conglutinatione lapidum'.
What it led to
- the channel through which Aristotelian and Avicennan mineralogy reached Latin Europe
- basis of the lapidaries and mining manuals of the 14th-16th centuries