Der Freiberger Bergbau: Technische Denkmale und Geschichte ed. by Otfried Wagenbreth, Eberhard Wächtler

Abstract

674 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE The royal interest in medicine is the final theme. Here, as in mining, the crown attempted to assert itsjurisdiction. Spanish military medicine is portrayed as far ahead of the efforts of Spain’s neighbors. The king promoted the search for medicinal plants in his empire, with public health outweighing economic gain as a motive. Medical care, like much of the technological enterprise in Philip’s reign, was both stimulated by war and thwarted by the financial exhaustion it caused. Goodman concludes that the centralizing nature of Spanish gover­ nance influenced both scientific and technological activities. The crown directed both the training and importation of experts. Gov­ ernment control of mining, driven by the need for instant funds, stifled private interest. I doubt whether the crown’s unwillingness to draw on the reputed technical expertise of conversos (converted Jews) was as important a factor as is here supposed. The political and economic bind of Spanish hegemony could not have been overcome merely by changing the rules of elite recruitment. Thomas F. Glick Dr. Glick, professor of history at Boston University, is currently investigating the supply and use of scientific instruments in 18th-century Spain. Der Freiberger Bergbau: Technische Denkmale und Geschichte. Edited by Otfried Wagenbreth and Eberhard Wachtler. Leipzig: VEB Deutscher Verlag fur Grundstoffindustrie, 1985. Pp. 382; illustrations, tables, bibliography, indexes. DM 60.00. Among the medieval mining towns of Europe, those in German­ speaking areas are best known, in part because of the peculiar proclivity of the learned of Renaissance Germany for writing about technology. One of the mining towns, Freiberg in Saxony, was the home of a physician, Ulrich Riilein von Calw, who wrote, about 1500, a little book on mining (Ein nutzlich Bergbiichlein—it was probably published in Leipzig) describing ore deposits and mine surveying and attempting, certainly for the first time in print, to make a rational connection between mineralogical theory and mining practice. And the application of reason—perhaps one should say “science”—to mining. This scientific spirit was still in evidence in Freiberg in 1765, the year of the foundation of its mining school (Bergakademie). From 1775, when A. G. Werner (1749-1817), a sometime student there, joined the faculty, Freiberg became the most prestigious center for academic study of the earth sciences. Werner’s students included such luminaries as Leopold von Buch (1774—1853) and J. K. Freiesleben (1774-1846), the principal expositors of the Neptunist theory of the origin of rocks, the celebrated Alexander von Humboldt (1769— 1859), and Robert Jameson (1774—1834). TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 675 Freiberg’s reputation drew many foreign students, including Juan José d’Elhuyar ( 1754—96), director ofmines in Nueva Granada (Colom­ bia) and discoverer of the element tungsten, and A. M. del Rio (1764— 1849), the first professor of mineralogy in the New World and discov­ erer of the element vanadium. And lots of Americans—twenty-four of fifty-one students newly admitted in 1865 were from the United States. All this is well known. But the Bergakademie was a mining school. F. A. von Heynitz (1725-1802), director of the mining industry of Saxony, introduced mining as a university subject at the Bergakad­ emie in its second year, and its engineering faculty was also eminent, including J. F. Lempe (1757—1801), who edited there from 1785 to 1799 the pioneering journal, Magazin für Bergbaukunde; C. B. von Cotta (1808-79), a professor at Freiberg from 1842 and “originator” of the science of ore deposits; and J. L. Weisbach (1806—71), a leading authority on hydraulics and mining machinery. The background for all of this was a substantial and complex mining industry, the existence of which is documented back to 1185 and is the subject of Der Freiberger Bergbau. After an introductory explanation of the geological basis, the book deals with the legal, technical, economic, and cultural development of the Freiberg mines and smelteries from the 12th until the 20th century. A chronological table, giving important dates in this history, is followed by an overview of the various groups of surviving “technical monuments,” which are described with plans and diagrams and a large number of photo­ graphs. Function...