The Theory of Mineral Genesis in Aristotle's Meteorologica

The mineral exhalation theory proposed by Aristotle in Meteorologica was regarded as an important source of the western theory of mineral genesis. However, exhalations were usually understood one-sidedly as material causes of minerals, which is related to the fact that minerals were not usually considered meteorological phenomena in the modern sense and were therefore treated as a specialized field. In this paper, stones and metals are repositioned within the overall structure of Aristotle's meteorology, interpreting the origin of ores and metals from three aspects: material, function and production location, and by analysing their genesis, the position of stones and metals in the meteorological hierarchical order is determined. This paper shows that the generation of minerals in Meteorologica was ultimately dependent on heaven. Nevertheless, stones and metals were influenced by heaven only in indirect ways, due to their lowest position in the meteorological order far from the sun. As a result, Georgius Agricola was able to reverse the mineral theory of Aristotle thoroughly so that the causes of minerals were completely transferred from heaven to the subterrane. In the 16th century, the subterranean world was finally separated from the structured sublunar world in Meteorologica and became an independent and self-sufficient field of study.