Managing Mineral Growth in Early Modern Mining
- Author(s)
- Sebastian Felten
- Abstract
This essay explores how the analogy between vegetable, animal, and mineral growth—common in early modern Europe—informed economic thinking. It proceeds by analyzing a scholarly text emerging from Central European mining, the Berg-Chronica of the Saxon court historiographer Petrus Albinus, within two contexts: natural philosophy (both learned and vernacular) and the management of mines. The provision of precious and useful metals by Nature/God was thought to occur slowly. Taking a long view on mineral provision was fostered by the increasingly bureaucratic management of mines in Central Europe.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of History
- Journal
- Isis
- Volume
- 114
- Pages
- 626-630
- No. of pages
- 5
- ISSN
- 0021-1753
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1086/726184
- Publication date
- 09-2023
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 603123 History of science
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- History, Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous), History and Philosophy of Science
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/7c35c07c-473c-4c86-bb32-bea849984e77