Dear list-members,
during the last weeks, I had several occasions to have a closer look on "Fahlerz" and other traditional German terms.
Maybe I should have been more careful in my last e-mail, since at least for the moment, I cannot quote a reliable 16th century source using the term "Fahlerz". Agricola calls it "argentum rude cineracerum" (raw ash-grey silver, i.e. ash-grey silver-ore). In his epistulam ad Meurerum (letter to Meurer), Agricola himself and Bechius in the 1557 translation of “de re metallica” use “aschfarbenes Erz” (ash-grey ore) or “graues Erz” (grey ore) as a translation into German.
Nevertheless, the German miners’ vocabulary for ores and minerals has been quite detailed already in the 16th century. While terms such as “Rotgülden”, “Glaserz”, “Grauerz” etc. have been used for silver-suphides, silver-chlorides or copper-arsenic/antimony-suphides containing silver, galena has been called “glanz” or perhaps “Bleiglanz” or “Bleischweif” from the 16th century onwards or even earlier. I do not believe that galena has ever been called or summarised as “Fahlerz” in German unless by some misunderstanding or mistake.
In general, the interpretation of old German mineral terms is sometimes rather difficult, as same terms were used for different minerals. “Glaserz” for example was used for rich silver ores, especially argentite, but also for chlorargyrite and tennatite/tetraedrite.
If anyone could provide a useful reference, where the meaning of old mineral terms (German or other) is carefully interpreted, I would be quite thankful.
All I know for the moment is:
- Haditsch, J.G. / Maus, H.: Alte Mineralnamen im deutschen Schrifttum. (Archiv für Lagerstättenforschung in den Ostalpen, Sonderband 3), Leoben: Institut für Mineralogie und Gesteinskunde, 1974.
- Lüschen, Hans: Die Namen der Steine. 1968.
The first is an extensive word list giving old mineral names and their modern mineralogical equivalents, but does not state when and where the old terms where used. The second gives more details on far less terms.
The remark by John Mason that the silver content of galena from some deposits in Mid-Wales was in fact due to small inclusions of "Fahlerz" (tennantite or tetrahedrite) in galena has also been observed in Central European deposits. Maybe the same is true for Combe Martin?
Finally, in rethinking my former e-mail, dull is probably not the best translation for “fahl”, because it has a whole range of meanings, more than the German word “fahl”. Wan or pale might be better translations.
Best wishes,
Uwe
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Uwe Meyerdirks
Frondsbergstraße 47, D-72070 Tübingen, +49 (0)7071 308097
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