Latin Editions.
| De Re Metallica, | Froben | Basel Folio | 1556. |
| " | " | " | 1561. |
| " | Ludwig König | " | 1621. |
| " | Emanuel König | " | 1657. |
In addition to these, Leupold,[21] Schmid,[22] and others mention an octavo edition, without illustrations, Schweinfurt, 1607. We have not been able to find a copy of this edition, and are not certain of its existence. The same catalogues also mention an octavo edition of De Re Metallica, Wittenberg, 1612 or 1614, with notes by Joanne Sigfrido; but we believe this to be a confusion with Agricola's subsidiary works, which were published at this time and place, with such notes.
German Editions.
| Vom Bergkwerck, | Froben, Folio, 1557. |
| Bergwerck Buch, | Sigmundi Feyrabendt, Frankfort-on-Main, folio, 1580. |
| " | Ludwig König, Basel, folio, 1621. |
There are other editions than these, mentioned by bibliographers, but we have been unable to confirm them in any library. The most reliable of such bibliographies, that of John Ferguson,[23] gives in addition to the above; Bergwerkbuch, Basel, 1657, folio, and Schweinfurt, 1687, octavo.
Italian Edition.
L'Arte de Metalli, Froben, Basel, folio, 1563.
Other Languages.
So far as we know, De Re Metallica was never actually published in other than Latin, German, and Italian. However, a portion of the accounts of the firm of Froben were published in 1881[24], and therein is an entry under March, 1560, of a sum to one Leodigaris Grymaldo for some other work, and also for "correction of Agricola's De Re Metallica in French." This may of course, be an error for the Italian edition, which appeared a little later. There is also mention[25] that a manuscript of De Re Metallica in Spanish was seen in the library of the town of Bejar. An interesting note appears in the glossary given by Sir John Pettus in his translation of Lazarus Erckern's work on assaying. He says[26] "but I cannot enlarge my observations upon any more words, because the printer calls for what I did write of a metallick dictionary, after I first proposed the printing of Erckern, but intending within the compass of a year to publish Georgius Agricola, De Re Metallica (being fully translated) in English, and also to add a dictionary to it, I shall reserve my remaining essays (if what I have done hitherto be approved) till then, and so I proceed in the dictionary." The translation was never published and extensive inquiry in various libraries and among the family of Pettus has failed to yield any trace of the manuscript.