A citation from the library
Thomas Aquinas, on Job 28:2
Thomas Aquinas · 1225–1274
Job 28:2 · Douay-Rheims
“Iron is taken out of the earth, and stone melted with heat is turned into brass.”
On this verse:
“As to iron he says, "Iron is taken from the earth," because it is found in the earth not yet refined, as it were. As to bronze he says, "and stone," with which one finds a gas proportioned to its nature is mixed, "released by heat," of great intensity, "changed to bronze," when what is found there of the nature of bronze is made aqueous by the heat of fire.”
Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.