Georgii Agricolae medici Bermannus, sive de re metallica

For if the Greeks, the most learned of all peoples, committed to memory not only their own things but also foreign ones, it would be shameful for us if our own things, through our own sloth and laziness, remained even now as if buried in darkness and lacked their own light.

We have assigned the role of the metallurgist to Bermannus. For he is most skilled in this art, since he was once a soldier who traveled through many regions, in which he observed metallic things—no differently than Dioscorides observed herbs while he was serving under the Roman standards. Disputing with him are two most learned and distinguished physicians: Nicolaus Ancon and Ioannes Næuius. The former is not unskillfully versed in medicine—which in our age is handed down mostly from the Arabs—and is also learned in the discipline of the peripatetics followers of Aristotle. Næuius, however, is erudite both in Latin and Greek literature, and especially in that ancient medicine. I became clearly aware of this man’s noble intellect and singular study when we were together in Italy practicing medicine. Therefore, when they were standing in the marketplace of our valley, and Ancon saw Bermannus approaching, he began as follows: "I see Bermannus, if I am not mistaken, a learned man and an old friend."