Chapter IV: Book I (2)

Having thus refuted the arguments and contentions of adversaries, let us sum up the advantages of the metals. In the first place, they are useful to the physician, for they furnish liberally the ingredients for medicines, by which wounds and ulcers are cured, and even plagues; so that certainly if there were no other reasons why we should explore the depths of the earth, we should for the sake of medicine alone dig in the mines. Again, the metals are of use to painters, because they yield certain pigments which, when united with the painter's slip, are injured less than others by the moisture from without. Further, mining is useful to the architects, for thus is found marble, which is suitable not only for strengthening large buildings, but also for decoration. It is, moreover, helpful to those whose ambition urges them toward immortal glory, because it yields metals from which are made coins, statues, and other monuments, which, next to literary records, give men in a sense immortality. The metals are useful to merchants with very great cause, for, as I have stated elsewhere, the use of money which is made from metals is much more convenient to mankind than the old system of exchange of commodities. In short, to whom are the metals not of use? In very truth, even the works of art, elegant, embellished, elaborate, useful, are fashioned in various shapes by the artist from the metals gold, silver, brass, lead, and iron. How few artists could make anything that is beautiful and perfect without using metals? Even if tools of iron or brass were not used, we could not make tools of wood and stone without the help of metal. From all these examples are evident the benefits and advantages derived from metals. We should not have had these at all unless the science of mining and metallurgy had been discovered and handed down to us. Who then does not understand how highly useful they are, nay rather, how necessary to the human race? In a word, man could not do without the mining industry, nor did Divine Providence will that he should.

Further, it has been asked whether to work in metals is honourable employment for respectable people or whether it is not degrading and dishonourable. We ourselves count it amongst the honourable arts. For that art, the pursuit of which is unquestionably not impious, nor offensive, nor mean, we may esteem honourable. That this is the nature of the mining profession, inasmuch as it promotes wealth by good and honest methods, we shall show presently. With justice, therefore, we may class it amongst honourable employments. In the first place, the occupation of the miner, which I must be allowed to compare with other methods of acquiring great wealth, is just as noble as that of agriculture; for, as the farmer, sowing his seed in his fields injures no one, however profitable they may prove to him, so the miner digging for his metals, albeit he draws forth great heaps of gold or silver, hurts thereby no mortal man. Certainly these two modes of increasing wealth are in the highest degree both noble and honourable. The booty of the soldier, however, is frequently impious, because in the fury of the fighting he seizes all goods, sacred as well as profane. The most just king may have to declare war on cruel tyrants, but in the course of it wicked men cannot lose their wealth and possessions without dragging into the same calamity innocent and poor people, old men, matrons, maidens, and orphans. But the miner is able to accumulate great riches in a short time, without using any violence, fraud, or malice. That old saying is, therefore, not always true that "Every rich man is either wicked himself, or is the heir to wickedness."

Some, however, who contend against us, censure and attack miners by saying that they and their children must needs fall into penury after a short time, because they have heaped up riches by improper means. According to them nothing is truer than the saying of the poet Naevius:

"Ill gotten gains in ill fashion slip away."

The following are some of the wicked and sinful methods by which they say men obtain riches from mining. When a prospect of obtaining metals shows itself in a mine, either the ruler or magistrate drives out the rightful owners of the mines from possession, or a shrewd and cunning neighbour perhaps brings a law-suit against the old possessors in order to rob them of some part of their property. Or the mine superintendent imposes on the owners such a heavy contribution on shares, that if they cannot pay, or will not, they lose their rights of possession; while the superintendent, contrary to all that is right, seizes upon all that they have lost. Or, finally, the mine foreman may conceal the vein by plastering over with clay that part where the metal abounds, or by covering it with earth, stones, stakes, or poles, in the hope that after several years the proprietors, thinking the mine exhausted, will abandon it, and the foreman can then excavate that remainder of the ore and keep it for himself. They even state that the scum of the miners exist wholly by fraud, deceit, and lying. For to speak of nothing else, but only of those deceits which are practised in buying and selling, it is said they either advertise the veins with false and imaginary praises, so that they can sell the shares in the mines at one-half more than they are worth, or on the contrary, they sometimes detract from the estimate of them so that they can buy shares for a small price. By exposing such frauds our critics suppose all good opinion of miners is lost. Now, all wealth, whether it has been gained by good or evil means, is liable by some adverse chance to vanish away. It decays and is dissipated by the fault and carelessness of the owner, since he loses it through laziness and neglect, or wastes and squanders it in luxuries, or he consumes and exhausts it in gifts, or he dissipates and throws it away in gambling:

"Just as though money sprouted up again, renewed from an exhausted coffer, and was always to be obtained from a full heap."

It is therefore not to be wondered at if miners do not keep in mind the counsel given by King Agathocles: "Unexpected fortune should be held in reverence," for by not doing so they fall into penury; and particularly when the miners are not content with moderate riches, they not rarely spend on new mines what they have accumulated from others. But no just ruler or magistrate deprives owners of their possessions; that, however, may be done by a tyrant, who may cruelly rob his subjects not only of their goods honestly obtained, but even of life itself. And yet whenever I have inquired into the complaints which are in common vogue, I always find that the owners who are abused have the best of reasons for driving the men from the mines; while those who abuse the owners have no reason to complain about them. Take the case of those who, not having paid their contributions, have lost the right of possession, or those who have been expelled by the magistrate out of another man's mine: for some wicked men, mining the small veins branching from the veins rich in metal, are wont to invade the property of another person. So the magistrate expels these men accused of wrong, and drives them from the mine. They then very frequently spread unpleasant rumours concerning this amongst the populace. Or, to take another case: when, as often happens, a dispute arises between neighbours, arbitrators appointed by the magistrate settle it, or the regular judges investigate and give judgment. Consequently, when the judgment is given, inasmuch as each party has consented to submit to it, neither side should complain of injustice; and when the controversy is adjudged, inasmuch as the decision is in accordance with the laws concerning mining, one of the parties cannot be injured by the law. I do not vigorously contest the point, that at times a mine superintendent may exact a larger contribution from the owners than necessity demands. Nay, I will admit that a foreman may plaster over, or hide with a structure, a vein where it is rich in metals. Is the wickedness of one or two to brand the many honest with fraud and trickery? What body is supposed to be more pious and virtuous in the Republic than the Senate? Yet some Senators have been detected in peculations, and have been punished. Is this any reason that so honourable a house should lose its good name and fame? The superintendent cannot exact contributions from the owners without the knowledge and permission of the Bergmeister or the deputies; for this reason deception of this kind is impossible. Should the foremen be convicted of fraud, they are beaten with rods; or of theft, they are hanged. It is complained that some sellers and buyers of the shares in mines are fraudulent. I concede it. But can they deceive anyone except a stupid, careless man, unskilled in mining matters? Indeed, a wise and prudent man, skilled in this art, if he doubts the trustworthiness of a seller or buyer, goes at once to the mine that he may for himself examine the vein which has been so greatly praised or disparaged, and may consider whether he will buy or sell the shares or not. But people say, though such an one can be on his guard against fraud, yet a simple man and one who is easily credulous, is deceived. But we frequently see a man who is trying to mislead another in this way deceive himself, and deservedly become a laughing-stock for everyone; or very often the defrauder as well as the dupe is entirely ignorant of mining. If, for instance, a vein has been found to be abundant in ore, contrary to the idea of the would-be deceiver, then he who was to have been cheated gets a profit, and he who has been the deceiver loses. Nevertheless, the miners themselves rarely buy or sell shares, but generally they have _jurati venditores_[28] who buy and sell at such prices as they have been instructed to give or accept. Seeing therefore, that magistrates decide disputes on fair and just principles, that honest men deceive nobody, while a dishonest one cannot deceive easily, or if he does he cannot do so with impunity, the criticism of those who wish to disparage the honesty of miners has therefore no force or weight.

In the next place, the occupation of the miner is objectionable to nobody. For who, unless he be naturally malevolent and envious, will hate the man who gains wealth as it were from heaven? Or who will hate a man who to amplify his fortune, adopts a method which is free from reproach? A moneylender, if he demands an excessive interest, incurs the hatred of men. If he demands a moderate and lawful rate, so that he is not injurious to the public generally and does not impoverish them, he fails to become very rich from his business. Further, the gain derived from mining is not sordid, for how can it be such, seeing that it is so great, so plentiful, and of so innocent a nature. A merchant's profits are mean and base when he sells counterfeit and spurious merchandise, or puts far too high a price on goods that he has purchased for little; for this reason the merchant would be held in no less odium amongst good men than is the usurer, did they not take account of the risk he runs to secure his merchandise. In truth, those who on this point speak abusively of mining for the sake of detracting from its merits, say that in former days men convicted of crimes and misdeeds were sentenced to the mines and were worked as slaves. But to-day the miners receive pay, and are engaged like other workmen in the common trades.

Certainly, if mining is a shameful and discreditable employment for a gentleman because slaves once worked mines, then agriculture also will not be a very creditable employment, because slaves once cultivated the fields, and even to-day do so among the Turks; nor will architecture be considered honest, because some slaves have been found skilful in that profession; nor medicine, because not a few doctors have been slaves; nor will any other worthy craft, because men captured by force of arms have practised it. Yet agriculture, architecture, and medicine are none the less counted amongst the number of honourable professions; therefore, mining ought not for this reason to be excluded from them. But suppose we grant that the hired miners have a sordid employment. We do not mean by miners only the diggers and other workmen, but also those skilled in the mining arts, and those who invest money in mines. Amongst them can be counted kings, princes, republics, and from these last the most esteemed citizens. And finally, we include amongst the overseers of mines the noble Thucydides, the historian, whom the Athenians placed in charge of the mines of Thasos.[29] And it would not be unseemly for the owners themselves to work with their own hands on the works or ore, especially if they themselves have contributed to the cost of the mines. Just as it is not undignified for great men to cultivate their own land. Otherwise the Roman Senate would not have created Dictator L. Quintius Cincinnatus, as he was at work in the fields, nor would it have summoned to the Senate House the chief men of the State from their country villas. Similarly, in our day, Maximilian Caesar would not have enrolled Conrad in the ranks of the nobles known as Counts; Conrad was really very poor when he served in the mines of Schneeberg, and for that reason he was nicknamed the "poor man"; but not many years after, he attained wealth from the mines of Fuerst, which is a city in Lorraine, and took his name from "Luck."[30] Nor would King Vladislaus have restored to the Assembly of Barons, Tursius, a citizen of Cracow, who became rich through the mines in that part of the kingdom of Hungary which was formerly called Dacia.[31] Nay, not even the common worker in the mines is vile and abject. For, trained to vigilance and work by night and day, he has great powers of endurance when occasion demands, and easily sustains the fatigues and duties of a soldier, for he is accustomed to keep long vigils at night, to wield iron tools, to dig trenches, to drive tunnels, to make machines, and to carry burdens. Therefore, experts in military affairs prefer the miner, not only to a commoner from the town, but even to the rustic.

But to bring this discussion to an end, inasmuch as the chief callings are those of the moneylender, the soldier, the merchant, the farmer, and the miner, I say, inasmuch as usury is odious, while the spoil cruelly captured from the possessions of the people innocent of wrong is wicked in the sight of God and man, and inasmuch as the calling of the miner excels in honour and dignity that of the merchant trading for lucre, while it is not less noble though far more profitable than agriculture, who can fail to realize that mining is a calling of peculiar dignity? Certainly, though it is but one of ten important and excellent methods of acquiring wealth in an honourable way, a careful and diligent man can attain this result in no easier way than by mining.

END OF BOOK I.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Fibrae_--"fibres." See Note 6, p. 70.

[2] _Commissurae saxorum_--"rock joints," "seams," or "cracks." Agricola and all of the old authors laid a wholly unwarranted geologic value on these phenomena. See description and footnotes, Book III., pages 43 and 72.

[3] _Succi_--"juice," or _succi concreti_--"solidified juice." Ger. Trans., _saffte_. The old English translators and mineralogists often use the word juices in the same sense, and we have adopted it. The words "solutions" and "salts" convey a chemical significance not warranted by the state of knowledge in Agricola's time. Instances of the former use of this word may be seen in Barba's "First Book of the Art of Metals," (Trans. Earl Sandwich, London, 1674, p. 2, etc.,) and in Pryce's _Mineralogia Cornubiensis_ (London, 1778, p. 25, 32).

[4] In order that the reader should be able to grasp the author's point of view as to his divisions of the Mineral Kingdom, we introduce here his own statement from _De Natura Fossilium_, (p. 180). It is also desirable to read the footnote on his theory of ore-deposits on pages 43 to 53, and the review of _De Natura Fossilium_ given in the Appendix.

"The subterranean inanimate bodies are divided into two classes, one of which, because it is a fluid or an exhalation, is called by those names, and the other class is called the minerals. Mineral bodies are solidified from particles of the same substance, such as pure gold, each particle of which is gold, or they are of different substances such as lumps which consist of earth, stone, and metal; these latter may be separated into earth, stone and metal, and therefore the first is not a mixture while the last is called a mixture. The first are again divided into simple and compound minerals. The simple minerals are of four classes, namely earths, solidified juices, stones and metals, while the mineral compounds are of many sorts, as I shall explain later.

"Earth is a simple mineral body which may be kneaded in the hands when moistened, or from which lute is made when it has been wetted. Earth, properly so called, is found enclosed in veins or veinlets, or frequently on the surface in fields and meadows. This definition is a general one. The harder earth, although moistened by water, does not at once become lute, but does turn into lute if it remains in water for some time. There are many species of earths, some of which have names but others are unnamed.

"Solidified juices are dry and somewhat hard (_subdurus_) mineral bodies which when moistened with water do not soften but liquefy instead; or if they do soften, they differ greatly from the earths by their unctuousness (_pingue_) or by the material of which they consist. Although occasionally they have the hardness of stone, yet because they preserve the form and nature which they had when less hard, they can easily be distinguished from the stones. The juices are divided into 'meagre' and unctuous (_macer et pinguis_). The 'meagre' juices, since they originate from three different substances, are of three species. They are formed from a liquid mixed with earth, or with metal, or with a mineral compound. To the first species belong salt and _Nitrum_ (soda); to the second, chrysocolla, verdigris, iron-rust, and azure; to the third, vitriol, alum, and an acrid juice which is unnamed. The first two of these latter are obtained from pyrites, which is numbered amongst the compound minerals. The third of these comes from _Cadmia_ (in this case the cobalt-zinc-arsenic minerals; the acrid juice is probably zinc sulphate). To the unctuous juices belong these species: sulphur, bitumen, realgar and orpiment. Vitriol and alum, although they are somewhat unctuous yet do not burn, and they differ in their origin from the unctuous juices, for the latter are forced out from the earth by heat, whereas the former are produced when pyrites is softened by moisture.

"Stone is a dry and hard mineral body which may either be softened by remaining for a long time in water and be reduced to powder by a fierce fire; or else it does not soften with water but the heat of a great fire liquefies it. To the first species belong those stones which have been solidified by heat, to the second those solidified (literally 'congealed') by cold. These two species of stones are constituted from their own material. However, writers on natural subjects who take into consideration the quantity and quality of stones and their value, divide them into four classes. The first of these has no name of its own but is called in common parlance 'stone': to this class belong loadstone, jasper (or bloodstone) and _Aetites_ (geodes?). The second class comprises hard stones, either pellucid or ornamental, with very beautiful and varied colours which sparkle marvellously; they are called gems. The third comprises stones which are only brilliant after they have been polished, and are usually called marble. The fourth are called rocks; they are found in quarries, from which they are hewn out for use in building, and they are cut into various shapes. None of the rocks show colour or take a polish. Few of the stones sparkle; fewer still are transparent. Marble is sometimes only distinguishable from opaque gems by its volume; rock is always distinguishable from stones properly so-called by its volume. Both the stones and the gems are usually to be found in veins and veinlets which traverse the rocks and marble. These four classes, as I have already stated, are divided into many species, which I will explain in their proper place.

"Metal is a mineral body, by nature either liquid or somewhat hard. The latter may be melted by the heat of the fire, but when it has cooled down again and lost all heat, it becomes hard again and resumes its proper form. In this respect it differs from the stone which melts in the fire, for although the latter regain its hardness, yet it loses its pristine form and properties. Traditionally there are six different kinds of metals, namely gold, silver, copper, iron, tin and lead. There are really others, for quicksilver is a metal, although the Alchemists disagree with us on this subject, and bismuth is also. The ancient Greek writers seem to have been ignorant of bismuth, wherefore Ammonius rightly states that there are many species of metals, animals, and plants which are unknown to us. _Stibium_ when smelted in the crucible and refined has as much right to be regarded as a proper metal as is accorded to lead by writers. If when smelted, a certain portion be added to tin, a bookseller's alloy is produced from which the type is made that is used by those who print books on paper. Each metal has its own form which it preserves when separated from those metals which were mixed with it. Therefore neither electrum nor _Stannum_ is of itself a real metal, but rather an alloy of two metals. Electrum is an alloy of gold and silver, _Stannum_ of lead and silver (see note 33, p. 473). And yet if silver be parted from the electrum, then gold remains and not electrum; if silver be taken away from _Stannum_, then lead remains and not _Stannum_. Whether brass, however, is found as a native metal or not, cannot be ascertained with any surety. We only know of the artificial brass, which consists of copper tinted with the colour of the mineral calamine. And yet if any should be dug up, it would be a proper metal. Black and white copper seem to be different from the red kind. Metal, therefore, is by nature either solid, as I have stated, or fluid, as in the unique case of quicksilver. But enough now concerning the simple kinds.

"I will now speak of the compounds which are composed of the simple minerals cemented together by nature, and under the word 'compound' I now discuss those mineral bodies which consist of two or three simple minerals. They are likewise mineral substances, but so thoroughly mixed and alloyed that even in the smallest part there is not wanting any substance that is contained in the whole. Only by the force of the fire is it possible to separate one of the simple mineral substances from another; either the third from the other two, or two from the third, if there were three in the same compound. These two, three or more bodies are so completely mixed into one new species that the pristine form of none of these is recognisable.

"The 'mixed' minerals, which are composed of those same simple minerals, differ from the 'compounds,' in that the simple minerals each preserves its own form so that they can be separated one from the other not only by fire but sometimes by water and sometimes by hand. As these two classes differ so greatly from one another I usually use two different words in order to distinguish one from the other. I am well aware that Galen calls the metallic earth a compound which is really a mixture, but he who wishes to instruct others should bestow upon each separate thing a definite name."

For convenience of reference we may reduce the above to a diagram as follows:

1. Fluids and gases.

{ { Earths
{ (a) Simple { Solidified juices
{ minerals { Stones
{ { Metals
{ A. Homogenous {
{ bodies {
{ { (b) Compound { Being heterogeneous mixtures
{ { minerals { of (a)
{
2. Mineral {
bodies {
{
{ B. Mixtures. Being homogenous mixtures of (a)

[5] _Experiendae_--"a trial." That actual assaying in its technical sense is meant, is sufficiently evident from Book VII.

[6] _... plumbum ... candidum ac cinereum vel nigrum_. "Lead ... white, or ash-coloured, or black." Agricola himself coined the term _plumbum cinereum_ for bismuth, no doubt following the Roman term for tin--_plumbum candidum_. The following passage from _Bermannus_ (p. 439) is of interest, for it appears to be the first description of bismuth, although mention of it occurs in the _Nuetzlich Bergbuechlin_ (see Appendix B). "_Bermannus_: I will show you another kind of mineral which is numbered amongst metals, but appears to me to have been unknown to the Ancients; we call it _bisemutum_. _Naevius_: Then in your opinion there are more kinds of metals than the seven commonly believed? _Bermannus_: More, I consider; for this which just now I said we called _bisemutum_, cannot correctly be called _plumbum candidum_ (tin), nor _nigrum_ (lead), but is different from both and is a third one. _Plumbum candidum_ is whiter and _plumbum nigrum_ is darker, as you see. _Naevius_: We see that this is of the colour of _galena_. _Ancon_: How then can _bisemutum_, as you call it, be distinguished from _galena_? _Bermannus_: Easily; when you take it in your hands it stains them with black, unless it is quite hard. The hard kind is not friable like _galena_, but can be cut. It is blacker than the kind of _rudis_ silver which we say is almost the colour of lead, and thus is different from both. Indeed, it not rarely contains some silver. It generally indicates that there is silver beneath the place where it is found, and because of this our miners are accustomed to call it the 'roof of silver.' They are wont to roast this mineral, and from the better part they make metal; from the poorer part they make a pigment of a kind not to be despised."

[7] _Nitrum._ The Ancients comprised many salts under this head, but Agricola in the main uses it for soda, although sometimes he includes potash. He usually, however, refers to potash as _lixivium_ or salt therefrom, and by other distinctive terms. For description of method of manufacture and discussion, see Book XII., p. 558.

[8] _Atramentum sutorium_--"Shoemaker's blacking." See p. 572 for description of method of manufacture and historical footnote. In the main Agricola means green vitriol, but he does describe three main varieties, green, blue, and white (_De Natura Fossilium_, p. 219). The blue was of course copper sulphate, and it is fairly certain that the white was zinc vitriol.

[9] _Lavandi_--"Washing." By this term the author includes all the operations of sluicing, buddling, and wet concentration generally. There is no English equivalent of such wide application, and there is some difficulty in interpretation without going further than the author intends. Book VIII. is devoted to the subject.

[10] _Operam et oleum perdit_--"loss of labour and oil."

[11] In _Veteribus et Novis Metallis_, and _Bermannus_, Agricola states that the mines of Schemnitz were worked 800 years before that time (1530), or about 750 A.D., and, further, that the lead mines of Goslar in the Hartz were worked by Otho the Great (936-973), and that the silver mines at Freiberg were discovered during the rule of Prince Otho (about 1170). To continue the argument to-day we could add about 360 years more of life to the mines of Goslar and Freiberg. See also Note 16, p. 36, and note 19, p. 37.

[12] Xenophon. Essay on the Revenues of Athens, I., 5.

[13] Ovid, _Metamorphoses_, I., 137 to 143.

[14] Diogenes Laertius, II., 5. The lines are assigned, however, to Philemon, not Euripides. (Kock, _Comicorum Atticorum Fragmenta_ II., 512).

[15] We have not considered it of sufficient interest to cite the references to all of the minor poets and those whose preserved works are but fragmentary. The translations from the Greek into Latin are not literal and suffer again by rendering into English; we have however considered it our duty to translate Agricola's view of the meaning.

[16] Diogenes Laertius, II.

[17] An inspection of the historical incidents mentioned here and further on, indicates that Agricola relied for such information on Diogenes Laertius, Plutarch, Livy, Valerius Maximus, Pliny, and often enough on Homer, Horace, and Virgil.

[18] Juvenal. _Satires_ I., l. 112, and VI., l. 298.

[19] Pliny, XXXIV., 39.

[20] Horace. _Odes_, I., 35, ll. 17-20.

[21] Horace. _Satires_, II., 3, ll. 99-102.

[22] Virgil. _AEneid_, III., l. 55, and I., l. 349.

[23] Horace. _Satires_, I., l. 73; and Epistle, I., 10, l. 47.

[25] Theognis. Maxims, II., l. 210.

[26] Pindar. _Olymp._ II., 58-60.

[27] Antiphanes, 4.

[28] _Jurati Venditores_--"Sworn brokers." (?)

[29] There is no doubt that Thucydides had some connection with gold mines; he himself is the authority for the statement that he worked mines in Thrace. Agricola seems to have obtained his idea that Thucydides held an appointment from the Athenians in charge of mines in Thasos, from Marcellinus (_Vita_, Thucydides, 30), who also says that Thucydides obtained possession of mines in Thrace through his marriage with a Thracian woman, and that it was while residing on the mines at Scapte-Hyle that he wrote his history. Later scholars, however, find little warrant for these assertions. The gold mines of Thasos--an island off the mainland of Thrace--are frequently mentioned by the ancient authors. Herodotus, VI., 46-47, says:--"Their (the Thasians') revenue was derived partly from their possessions upon the mainland, partly from the mines which they owned. They were masters of the gold mines of Scapte-Hyle, the yearly produce of which amounted to eighty talents. Their mines in Thasos yielded less, but still were so prolific that besides being entirely free from land-tax they had a surplus of income derived from the two sources of their territory on the mainland and their mines, in common years two hundred and in best years three hundred talents. I myself have seen the mines in question. By far the most curious of them are those which the Phoenicians discovered at the time when they went with Thasos and colonized the island, which took its name from him. These Phoenician workings are in Thasos itself, between Coenyra and a place called Aenyra over against Samothrace; a high mountain has been turned upside down in the search for ores." (Rawlinson's Trans.). The occasion of this statement of Herodotus was the relations of the Thasians with Darius (521-486 B.C.). The date of the Phoenician colonization of Thasos is highly nebular--anywhere from 1200 to 900 B.C.

[30] Agricola, _De Veteribus et Novis Metallis_, Book I., p. 392, says:--"Conrad, whose nickname in former years was 'pauper,' suddenly became rich from the silver mines of Mount Jura, known as the _Firstum_." He was ennobled with the title of Graf Cuntz von Glueck by the Emperor Maximilian (who was Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, 1493-1519). Conrad was originally a working miner at Schneeberg where he was known as Armer Cuntz (poor Cuntz or Conrad) and grew wealthy from the mines of Fuerst in Leberthal. This district is located in the Vosges Mountains on the borders of Lorraine and Upper Alsace. The story of Cuntz or Conrad von Glueck is mentioned by Albinus (_Meissnische Land und Berg Chronica_, Dresden, 1589, p. 116), Mathesius (_Sarepta_, Nuremberg, 1578, fol. XVI.), and by others.

[31] Vladislaus III. was King of Poland, 1434-44, and also became King of Hungary in 1440. Tursius seems to be a Latinized name and cannot be identified.