PublishedReaktion Books, June 2003 |
ISBN9781861891730 |
FormatSoftcover, 356 pages |
Dimensions22.8cm × 13.3cm |
This book deals with the history of mining and smelting from the Renaissance to the present. Martin Lynch opens with the invention, sometime before 1453, of a revolutionary technique for separating silver from copper. It was this invention which brought back to life the rich copper-silver mines of central Europe, in the process making brass cannon and silver coin available to the ambitious Habsburg emperors, thereby underpinning their quest for European domination.
