Giovanni Battista Agnello

He was the author of the second book in Italian printed in England, Espositione sopra vn libro intitolato Apocalypsis spiritus secreti.

[5][8] With his letter, the Vidame sent Cecil a copy of Agnello's book, saying that he wished it had been printed on cleaner paper, 'but that of dusky hue best suits the works of Vulcanicorum hominum'.

[5][10] At the beginning of January 1577 Agnello was approached by Michael Lok, one of the principal backers of Martin Frobisher's first voyage in 1576 to the Canadian Arctic in search of the Northwest Passage.

[13] The only contemporary account of what happened next is found in George Best's True Discourse:[14][15][16] After his arrival in London, being demanded of sundry his friends what thing he had brought them home of that country, [Frobisher] had nothing left to present them withal but a piece of this black stone.

And it fortuned a gentlewoman, one of the adventurer’s wives, to have a piece thereof, which by chance she threw and burned in the fire so long that at the length being taken forth and quenched in a little vinegar it glistered with a bright marquesset of gold.

Whereupon the matter being called in some question, it was brought to certain goldfinders in London to make assay thereof, who indeed found it to hold gold, and that very richly for the quantity.

Afterwards the same goldfinders promised great matters thereof if there were any store to be found, and offered themselves to adventure for the searching of those parts from whence the same was brought.

[13][27][28] Agnello was later involved in assaying the tons of black ore brought back to England on Frobisher's second voyage to Baffin Island in 1577.

[38][39] Amid growing doubts about the value of the ore, Kranich insisted that it contained a significant amount of gold, and asked for £200 and a daily wage of £1 to refine it.

[49][4] Despite having been the first to declare that the ultimately worthless ore contained gold, Agnello appears to have survived the Frobisher debacle relatively unscathed.

Investors, including prominent courtiers such as Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, who invested £3,000,[50][51][52][53] lost heavily, and the lawsuits that followed ruined Michael Lok.