1. Mining
Since its beginnings in antiquity, mineralogy (from Old French mine, “[ore] mine”) was characterized by its close relationship with mining and smelting (Mining). Experience had already accepted implicitly the Aristotelian distinction between metals (Greek plural metalleía; Latin metalla), which had to be worked, and fossils (Greek oryktá; Latin fossilia), which merely had to be dug. For the early modern period, this division wa…