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History of Oil: The Premodern Era (Thirteenth to Mid-Nineteenth Centuries)

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Encyclopedia of Petroleum Geoscience

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

Definition

The term petroleum (Latin “rock oil”) was used by Georgius Agricola in his 1546 book De Natura Fossilium. Although the 1860s are regarded as the beginning of the modern petroleum industry, petroleum was produced and used in the Middle East, China, Europe, and North America, as recorded in historical literature, from the thirteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Moreover, advances made by Samuel Kier and James Young in refining oil were critical developments leading to the modern petroleum industry.

This article chronicles the records and uses of petroleum from the thirteenth through the mid-nineteenth centuries in key areas of the world that have historically contributed to the oil industry. For additional information see Forbes (1958), Brice (2009), and Craig et al. (2018).

Developments from the Thirteenth to Sixteenth Centuries

During his travels along the “Silk Road” in about 1272 A.D., the renowned Venetian merchant, explorer, and writer, Marco Polo (1254–1324 A.D.),...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Eni Natural Resources, Milan, Italy

    Jonathan Craig

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  1. Jonathan Craig
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Correspondence to Jonathan Craig .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Energy and Geoscience Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Rasoul Sorkhabi

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Craig, J. (2020). History of Oil: The Premodern Era (Thirteenth to Mid-Nineteenth Centuries). In: Sorkhabi, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Petroleum Geoscience. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02330-4_33-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02330-4_33-1

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