A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins, Volume I (of 2)

889

Livius, lib. xl. cap. 29. Pliny, b. xiii. chap. 13, relates the same thing, with a little variation, respecting the annals of Cassius Hemina: “Mirabantur alii, quomodo illi libri durare potuissent. Ille ita rationem reddebat; lapidem fuisse quadratum circiter in media area vinctum candelis quoquoversus. In eo lapide insuper libros impositos fuisse, propterea arbitrari eos non computruisse. Et libros citratos fuisse, propterea arbitrarier tineas non tetigisse.” – Hardouin thinks that libri citrati were books in which folia citri were placed to preserve them from insects. The first editions however have libri cedrati, and even the paper itself may have been covered over with some resinous substance. The scarce edition which I received as a present from Professor Bause at Moscow, Opus impressum per Joan. Rubeum et Bernardinum Fratresque Vercellenses 1507, fol. has in page 98 the word caedratos, and in the margin caeratos.

890

A catalogue of this collection may be found in the second volume of Valentin’s Museum Museorum.

891

Von Stettens Kunstgeschichte von Augsburg, p. 218. 362.

892

With how much care this learned man, who died in 1544, in the twenty-ninth year of his age, collected minerals and plants is proved by his Silva Observationum Variarum, quas inter peregrinandum brevissime notavit. Walch, in his Naturgeschichte der Versteinerungen, considers it as the first general oryctography of Germany, and is surprised that so extensive a work should have been thought of at that period. Wallerius, in his Lucubratio de Systematibus Mineralogicis, Hohniæ, 1768, 8vo, p. 27, considers this Silva as a systematic description of all minerals. Both however are mistaken. Cordus undertook a journey in 1542, through some parts of Germany, and drew up a short catalogue without order, of the natural objects he met with in the course of his travels, which was published by Conrad Gesner, together with the other works of this industrious man, at Strasburg in 1561. This book, which I have in my possession, has in the title page, In hoc volumine continetur Valerii Cordi in Dioscoridis libros de Medica Materia; ejusdem Historiæ Stirpium, &c. The Silva begins page 217.

893

That Agricola had a good collection, may be concluded from his writings, in which he describes minerals according to their external appearance, and mentions the places where they are found.

894

H. Mohsen says in his Account of Mark Brandenburg, Berlin, 1783, 4to, p. 142. Thurneisser is the first person, as far as is known at present, who in this country formed a collection of natural curiosities.

895

“Ortelius habebat domi suæ imagines, statuas, nummos … conchas ab ipsis Indis et Antipodibus, marmora omnis coloris, spiras testudineas tantæ magnitudinis, ut decem ex iis viri in orbem sedentes cibum sumere possent; alias rursum ita angustas, ut vix magnitudinem capitelli unius aciculi adæquarent.” – M. Adami Vitæ Germ. Philos. Heidelb. 1615, 8vo, p. 431.

896

See Biographia Britannica, vol. iv. p. 2469. [The names of our early English collectors, Tradescant, Ashmole, Petiver, and Sir Hans Sloane, though a little later than the period alluded to, deserve to be recorded here.]

897

This extract may be seen in D. G. Molleri Dissert. de Technophysiotameis, Altorfi, 1704, p. 18. Some account of Quickelberg may be found in Sweertii Athenæ Belgicæ, Antv. 1628, fol. p. 671; in Val. Andreæ Bibliotheca Belgica, Lov. 1643, 4to, p. 806; and in Simleri Bibliotheca Instituta a Gesnero, Tiguri, 1574, fol. p. 617.

898

De Omni Rerum Fossilium Genere, op. Conr. Gesneri. Tig. 1565, 8vo.

899

He says in the preface, “Thesaurum fossilium multis impensis collegi, paucis comparabilem.”

900

This is related by Jacob Fabricius, in the preface to the treatise of his brother George Fabricius De Metallicis Rebus, which may be found in Gesner’s collection before-quoted.

901

This catalogue is printed in Œuvres de B. Palissy. Par M. Faujas de Saint-Fond et Gobet. Paris, 1777, 4to, p. 691. [Quite recently a new edition of Palissy’s works, together with an account of the life of this remarkable man by M. Cap, has been published at Paris. Palissy, after long devoting his services to the king and some of the royal family, was shut up in the Bastille on account of his religion. It is said that one day Henry III., having visited him in his prison, spoke to him thus: “My good man, you have been for forty-five years in my mother’s and my service. We have suffered you to live in your religion amidst fires and massacres: now I am so strongly urged by the Guise party and by my people, that I am constrained to leave you in the hands of my enemies, and to-morrow you will be burnt if you are not converted.” “Sire,” replied Bernard, “I am ready to lay down my life for the glory of God. You have often told me that you pitied me; and now I pity you, who have uttered these words, ‘I am constrained!’ Sire, it is not speaking like a king; and it is what you yourself, those who constrain you, the Guisards, and all your people, could never compel me to; for I know how to die.” Palissy died indeed in the Bastille, but a natural death, in 1589. Thus ended a career illustrious alike for great talents and rare virtues.]

902

Mercati Metallotheca. Romæ, 1717, fol. to which an appendix was added in 1719.

903

Joh. Baptistæ Olivi de reconditis et præcipuis collectaneis a Franc. Calceolario in Museo adservatis testificatio ad Hieron. Mercurialem. Venet. 1584, 4to. An edition was published also at Verona in quarto, in 1593. The complete description was however first printed at Verona in a small folio, in 1622; Musæum Calceolarianum Veronense. Maffei, in his Verona Illustrat. Veron. 1732, fol. p. 202, says, “Calceolari … fu de’ primi, che raccogliendo grandissima quantità d’erbe, piante, minerali, animali diseccati, droghe rare, cose impetrite, ed altre rarità naturali, formasse museo di questo genere.”

904

Winkelmann in his Observations on the Baths of the Ancients.

905

The following are the principal authors in whose works information is to be found respecting this subject: – Octavii Ferrarii Electorum libri duo. Patavii 1679, 4to. This work consists of short treatises on different subjects of antiquity. The ninth chapter of the first book, page 32, has for title, “Fumaria, seu fumi emissaria, vulgo caminos, apud veteres in usu fuisse, disputatur.”

Justi Lipsii Epistolarum selectarum Chilias, 1613, 8vo. The seventy-fifth letter in Centuria tertia ad Belgas, page 921, treats of chimneys, with which the author says the Greeks and the Romans were unacquainted.

Eberharti a Weyhe Parergon De Camino. To save my readers the trouble which I have had in searching for this small treatise, I shall give them the following information: E. von Weyhe was a learned nobleman of our electorate, a particular account of whose life and writings may be found in Molleri Cimbria Litterata, vol. ii. p. 970. In the year 1612 he published Discursus de speculi origine, usu et abusu, Eberharti von Weyhe. This edition contains nothing on chimneys, nor is there any thing to be found respecting them in the second, inserted in Dornavii Amphitheatrum Sapientiæ Socraticæ Joco-seriæ, Hanoviæ 1619, fol. i. p. 733. But this treatise was twice printed afterwards, as an appendix to the author’s Aulicus Politicus: Francf. 1615, and Wolfenb. 1622, in quarto; and in both these editions may be found at the end, Parergon de camino, inquirendi causa adjectum. In this short essay, which consists of only two pages, the author denies that the Jews, the Greeks, or the Romans had chimneys. Fabricius, in his Bibliograph. Antiquaria, does not quote Von Weyhe, either p. 1004, where he speaks of chimneys, or page 1014, where he speaks of looking-glasses.

Balthasaris Bonifacii Ludicra Historia. Venetiis 1652, 4to, lib. iii. cap. 23. De Caminis, p. 109. What this author says on the subject is of little importance.

Jo. Heringii Tractatus de molendinis eorumque jure, Francf. 1663, 4to.

P. Manutii Comment. in Ciceronis Epist. Familiar. lib. vii. epist. 10, decides against chimneys, and speaks of the manner of warming apartments.

Petronii Satyricon, cura Burmanni, Amst. 1743, 4to, i. p. 836. Burmann, on good grounds, is of opinion that the ancients had not chimneys.

Martini Lexicon Philologicum. Franc. 1655, fol. article Caminus.

Pancirollus De Rebus deperditis, ed. Salmuth, vol. i. tit. 33, p. 77.

Montfaucon, l’Antiquité expliquée, vol. i. p. 102. Montfaucon believes that the ancients had chimneys.

Pitisci Lexicon Antiquitatum Romanarum, fol. The whole article Caminus is transcribed from Lipsius, Ferrarius, and others, without the author’s own opinion.

Muratori, Antiquitates Italiæ Medii Ævi, ii. p. 418.

Constantini Libri de Ceremoniis aulæ Byzantinæ, t. ii. Lipsiæ, 1754, fol. in Reiskii Commentar. p. 125.

Encyclopédie, tome troisième, Paris, 1753, fol. p. 281.

Deutsche Encyclopedie, vol. iv. Frank. 1780, 4to, p. 823.

Maternus von Cilano, Römische Alterthümer, vol. iv. Altona, 1776, 8vo, p. 945. This author is of opinion that chimneys were used by the Greeks, but not by the Romans.

Bibliothèque Ancienne et Moderne, par Jean le Clerc, tom. xiii. 1720, part i. p. 56. The author gives an extract from Montfaucon, which contains a great many new observations.

Zanetti dell’ origine di alcune arti principali appresso i Veneziani. Venezia, 1758, 4to, p. 78.

Raccolta d’ opuscoli scientifici e filologici. Venezia, 1752, 12mo, tom. xlvii. A Treatise on Chimneys by Scip. Maffei is to be found page 67.

906

Odyss. lib. i. ver. 58.

907

Lib. viii. c. 137.

908

Ver. 139.

909

Lib. ix. p. 386.

910

Lib. vi. p. 236.

911

Lib. ix. p. 378.

912

Antholog. lib. ii. cap. 32. p. 229.

913

De Bellis Civil. lib. iv. p. 962, edit. Tollii.

914

Sat. x. ver. 17.

915

Epist. 64.

916

Such fire-watchmen were appointed by the emperor Augustus. – Sueton. in Vit. Octav. August. cap. 30. That these watchmen, whom the soldiers in ridicule called Sparteoli, were stationed in the neighbourhood of houses where there were grand entertainments, is proved by Tertulliani Apologet. cap. xxxix. p. 188, edit. De la Cerda. Compare also Casaubon’s annotations on the passage of Suetonius above quoted.

917

Eclog. i. ver. 83.

918

Aulular. act. ii. sc. 4.

919

De Re Rustica, lib. i. cap. 6.

920

Horat. lib. i. sat. 5.

921

Grapaldus De Partibus Ædium.

922

Plin. xxxiii. cap. 4. Virgil. Æn. iii. ver. 580. Juvenal, sat. xiv. ver. 117.

923

Lib. vii. cap. 3.

924

The name atrium had its rise from the walls of such places being black with smoke. Isidorus, xv. 3. This derivation is given also by Servius, Æn. lib. i. ver. 730.

925

Seneca, ep. 44. Cicero in Pison. cap. i. Juvenal, sat. viii. ver. 6.

926

In the Equites of Aristophanes the houses of the common people are called γύπαι and γυπάρια, because γὺψ signifies fuliginosum or fuscum. On account of the smoke they were called also μέλαθρα. Lycophron, 770, and 1190. Μέλαθρον αἰθαλόεν, domicilium fuliginosum, occurs in Homer, Iliad. ii. ver. 414, of which expression and i. ver. 204, the scholiast very properly gives the following explanation: ἀπὸ τοῦ μελαίνεσθαι ὑπὸ τοῦ κάπνου, quoniam a fumo reddebantur nigræ. For the same reason, according to the scholiasts, Apollonius Rhodius, lib. ii. ver. 1089, calls the middle beam of the roof μέλαθρον. Columella, i. 17, says, “Fuligo quæ supra focos tectis inhæret:” among us the soot adheres to the funnel of the chimney, and not to the roof or ceiling.

Tecta senis subeunt, nigro deformia fumo;

Ignis in hesterno stipite parvus erat. – Ovid. Fast. lib. v. 505.

In cujus hospitio nec fumi nec nidoris nebulam vererer. – Apuleii Metam. 1.

Sordidum flammæ trepidant rotantes

Vertice fumum. – Horat. iv. od. 11.

It may be here said, that the above passages allude to the hovels of the poor, which are black enough among us. These are not, however, all so smoky and so covered with soot both without and within; for though this may be the case in some villages, the houses of the common people in our cities may be called dirty rather than smoky. These passages of Roman authors speak principally of town-houses. The house in which Horace wished to entertain his Phyllis was not a mean one, for, he tells her a little before, “Ridet argento domus.” [Black huts or hovels, such as are described in the above remarks, having merely a hole in the roof, or an open window for the escape of smoke, are still common in Ireland, and in some of the less-frequented villages of the Continent. Indeed they are met with even in England. But in all cases the buildings appear to be very ancient.]

927

Hesiodi Op. ver. 627. Virgilii Georg. lib. i. 175.

928

Columella, i. 6, et viii. cap. 3.

929

Columella, lib. i. cap. 6, p. 405. Artificial heat could not be employed to prevent oil from becoming clotted by being frozen; for it was liable to be hurt by soot and smoke, the constant attendants of artificial warming. – Columella, lib. i. cap. 6.

930

This method of preparing wood is described by Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. lib. xv. cap. 10.

931

Cato De Re Rust. cap. 130. Pliny, lib. xv. cap. 8.

932

Such wood in Greek was called ἄκαπτα, in Latin acapna, in Homer’s Odyssey, book vi. κάγκανα and δανὰ, Pollux, p. 621, καύσιμα. This wood is mentioned also by Galen, in Antidot. lib. i. Trebellius Pollio in Vita Claudii, in an account of the firing allowed to him when a tribune, shows that wood was given out or sold by weight, as it is at present at Amsterdam. On the other hand, the coctilia were measured like coals. Martial, lib. xiii. ep. 15: Ligna acapna: —

Si vicina tibi Nomento rura coluntur,

Ad villam monco, rustice, ligna feres.

It would seem that in the above-mentioned neighbourhood there was no wood proper for fuel, so that people were obliged to purchase that which had been dried. Some hence conclude that the acapna must not have been dear, because it is recommended to a countryman. But the advice here given is addressed to the possessor of a farm who certainly could afford to purchase dried wood.

933

Jul. Capitol. in Vita Pertin. cap. iii. Capitolinus says before, that the father carried on lignariam negotiationem. See the annotations of Salmasius and Casaubon.

934

Horat. lib. i. sat. 5, 79.

935

Plutarch. Apophthegm. p. 180.

936

Plutarch. Sympos. lib. vi. 7.

937

Æl. Lamprid. Vita Heliogab. cap. 31.

938

See also Tavernier, Voyages, vol. i. – Olearius, vol. i. – Schweigger’s Reisebeschreibung nach Constantinopel und Jerusalem, p. 264. – Voyage de Chardin, 12mo, vol. iv. p. 236. – Voyage Littéraire de la Grèce, par M. Guys, Paris, 1776, 2 vols. 8vo, i. p. 34. Because this author is one of the latest who has taken the trouble to compare the manners of the ancient and modern Greeks, I shall here give his account at full length: – “The Greeks have no chimneys in the apartments of their houses; they make use only of a chaffing-dish, which is placed in the middle of the apartment to warm it, or for the benefit of those who choose to approach it. This custom is very ancient throughout all the East. The Romans had no other method of warming their chambers; and it has been preserved by the Turks. Λαμπτὴρ, says Hesychius, was a chaffing-dish placed in the middle of a room, on which dry wood was burned to warm it, and resinous wood to give light. This chaffing-dish was supported, as those at present, by a tripod; lamps were not introduced till long after. To secure the face from any inconvenience, and from the heat of the chaffing-dish, oftentimes dangerous, the tendour was invented. This is a square table under which the fire is placed. It is covered with a carpet which hangs down to the floor, and with another of silk, more or less rich, by way of ornament. People sit around it either on a sofa or on the pavement, and they can at the same time put their hands and their feet under the covering, which, as it encloses the chaffing-dish on all sides, preserves a gentle and lasting heat. The tendour is destined principally for the use of the women, who during the winter pass the whole day around it, employed either in embroidering or in receiving the visits of their friends.”

939

As a proof of this, Faber, in his Archæologie der Hebräer, Halle, 1773, 8vo, p. 432, quotes Kelim, v. 1, and Maimonides and Bartenora, p. 36, Tamid, c. 50. Compare Othon. Lex Rabbin. p. 85.

940

As it would be tedious to transcribe all these passages, I shall, as examples, give only the following: —

Dissolve frigus, ligna super foco

Large reponens. – Horat. lib. i. od. 9.

These lines show that the poet had an aversion to cold when enjoying his bottle, and that he wished for a good fire; but they do not inform us whether the hearth, focus, had a chimney. We learn as little from the advice of Cato, c. 143: “Focum purum circumversum quotidie, priusquam cubitum eat, habeat.” It was certainly wholesome to rake the fire together at night, but it might have burned either with or without a chimney. Cicero, Epist. Famil. lib. vii. 10: “Valde metuo ne frigeas in hibernis; quam ob rem camino luculento utendum censeo.” Cicero perhaps understood under that term some well-known kind of stove which afforded a strong heat. Suetonius, in Vita Vitellii, cap. viii.: “Nec ante in Prætorium rediit, quam flagrante triclinio ex conceptu camini.” As Vitellius was proclaimed emperor in January, a warm dining-room was certainly necessary. Du Cange in his Glossarium quotes the word fumariolum from the Paræneticum ad Pœnitentiam of the Spaniard Pacianus; but the latter takes the whole passage from Tertullian, who wrote more than a century before. Sidonius Apollin. lib. ii. epist. i.: “A cripto porticu in hyemale triclinium venitur, quod arcuatili camino sæpe ignis animatus pulla fuligine infecit.” No one can determine with certainty the meaning of arcuatilis caminus. A covering made of a thin plate of metal, or a screen, was perhaps placed over a portable stove; we however learn, that even where the arcuatilis caminus was used, the beauty of the dining-room was destroyed by smoke and soot. Ammianus Marcell. lib. xxv. in the end of the life of Jovian: “Fertur recente calce cubiculi illiti ferre odorem noxium neqnivisse, vel extuberato capite periisse succensione prunarum immensa.” This in an apartment where there was a stove or a chimney would have been impossible.

The passage of Athenæus, lib. xii. p. 519, which speaks of πύελοι, will admit of various explanations. Dalechamp thinks that they were the poëles of the French (something like our stoves). Casaubon says they were bathing-tubs. This opinion is in some measure confirmed by Suidas, who gives that meaning to πύελος; and by Jul. Pollux, in whom it occurs in the same sense more than once. Lipsius however rejects these explanations, and considers πύελοι to have been thecæ, or vessels similar to those which in low German are called riken, and which, instead of our stoves, are much used in Holland by the women, who seldom approach the chimney.

941

Seneca, ep. 90.

942

Senec. De Provident. p. 138. Cicero ad Fratrem, lib. iii. ep. i. Plin. lib. ii. ep. 17.

943

Statii Sylv. lib. i. 5, 17.

944

Pallad. De Re Rust. lib. i. 20, p. 876.

945

Digestor. lib. viii. tit. 2, 13.

946

A passage from And. Baccii Liber de thermis, fol. p. 263, contains information much of the same kind. See also Robortelli Laconici seu sudationis, explicatio, in Grævii Thes. Antiq. Rom. xii. p. 385. Vitruvius, cum annotat. G. Philandri, Lugd. 1586, 4to, p. 279. Philander says that the ancients conveyed from subterranean stoves, into the apartments above, the steam of boiling water; but of this I have found no proof. If this be true, the Roman baths must have been like the Russian sweating-baths. [Many of the large establishments and work-shops in this country are now heated by means of hot air, hot water, or steam circulating through a ramified system of pipes.]

947

Juliani op. Lips. 1696, fol. p. 341.

948

Zanetti, p. 78, quotes a charter of that year, in which the following words occur: “Cum tota sua cella et domo, et caminatis cum suo solario, et aliis caminatis.”

949

Such is the opinion of Muratori, Antiq. Ital. Med. Æv. ii. p. 418.

950

In Muratori, Script. Ital. vol. ix.

951

Ibid.

952

Ibid, vol. xvi. p. 582.

953

Reiske ad Ceremon. aulæ Byzant. p. 145.

954

The following passages of old writers, collected by Du Cange, allude to this law. Statuta Leichefeldensis ecclesiæ in Anglia: “Est autem ignitegium qualibet nocte per annum pulsandum hora septima post meridiem.” Statuta Massil. lib. v. cap. 4: “Statuimus hac præsenti constitutione perpetuo observandum, quod nullus de cætero vadat per civitatem Massiliæ vel suburbia civitatis contigua de nocte, ex quo campana, quæ dicitur Salvaterra, sonata fuerit, sine lumine.” Charta Johannis electi archiepisc. Upsaliensis, an. 1291: “Statuimus, ut nullus extra domum post ignitegium seu coverfu exeat.”

955

Pol. Vergil. De Rer. Invent. lib. vi. c. 12. Lugd. 1664, 12mo, p. 460.

956

The year is probably 1457; Calixtus was elected to the papal chair in 1455.

957

Dell’ origine di alcune arti principali appresso i Veneziani. Venezia, 1758, 4to, p. 80.

958

Historie Fiorentine, lib. xii. cap. 121.

959

This Chronicon Patavinum may be found in Muratori, Scriptor. Rerum Ital. vol. xvii.

960

Gazoni Piazze Universale, Venet. 1610, 4to, p. 364.

961

A writer in the German Encyclopedie conjectures that the Italian architects employed in Germany to build houses and palaces of stone, brought with them people acquainted with the art of constructing larger and more commodious chimneys than those commonly used.

962

Dictionnaire des Arts et des Métiers, par Jaubert, vol. iv. p. 534.

963

… Ces honnêtes enfansQui de Savoye arrivent tous les ans,Et dont la main légèrement essuyeCes longs canaux, engorgés par la suie.– Voltaire.