De natura fossilium (Agricola)
- Date
- 1546 · confidence high
- Place
- Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany
- Credited to
- Georgius Agricola
- People
- 👤 Georgius Agricola1494–1555
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Agricola classified minerals by physical properties (colour, hardness, weight, lustre, taste and shape) instead of their supposed magical virtues, and fixed a descriptive nomenclature. He is regarded as the founder of modern mineralogy.
In his day 'fossilia' meant anything dug from the earth, not just fossils. His mining work, De re metallica (1556), is mining technique and falls outside this entry.
What it led to
- a system of mineral classification by physical properties
- a bridge toward the systematic mineralogy of Werner and Haüy