Note 59 — BOOK IX.[1] (continued 2)

Most of these methods depend upon simple liquation of native bismuth. The sulphides, oxides, etc., could not be obtained without fusing in a furnace with appropriate de-sulphurizing or reducing agents, to which Agricola dimly refers. In Bermannus (p. 439), he says: "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 crude 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 shows 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." This pigment was cobalt blue (see note on p. 112), indicating a considerable confusion of these minerals. This quotation is the first description of bismuth, and the above text the first description of bismuth treatment. There is, however, bare mention of the mineral earlier, in the following single line from the Probierbüchlein (p. 1): "Jupiter (controls) the ores of tin and wismundt." And it is noted in the Nützliche Bergbüchlein in association with silver (see Appendix B).