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

658

Statutes at Large, vol. ii. Lond. 1735, p. 250. [Dr. Ure, however, says that indigo was actually denounced as a dangerous drug, and forbidden to be used by our Parliament in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. An Act was passed authorizing searchers to burn both it and logwood in every dye-house where they could be found. This Act remained in full force till the time of Charles II., that is, for a great part of a century.]

659

Marperger’s Beschreibung des Hutmacher-handwerks. Altenburg, 1719, 8vo, p. 85.

660

[This observation has been verified; for tolerably large quantities of indigo are now extracted from the Polygonum tinctorium, which is cultivated in some parts of France and Belgium for that purpose.]

661

Medea, ver. 316.

662

Odyss. v. 295.

663

Iliad, ix. 5.

664

Aristot. Meteorol. ii. cap. 5 et 6. On this account, as Salmasius remarks, the book De Mundo cannot belong to Aristotle, as mention is made in it of twelve winds.

665

De Vita et Gestis Caroli Magni. Traj. 1711, 4to, pp. 132, 133.

666

Adelung’s Wörterbuch, under the word East.

667

Of the writings of this monk, whom I shall again have occasion to quote, separate editions are scarce. They are however to be found in Maxima Bibliotheca Patrum, tom. xx.

668

Speculum Natur. iv. 34, p. 254.

669

Vitruv. i. 6, p. 41.

670

See Stuart’s Antiquities of Athens, i. 3, tab. i. – xix.

671

Varro De Re Rust. iii. 5. 17. Our common weathercocks and vanes, when well made, and preserved from rust, show the point from which the wind proceeds, but do not tell their names. By the vanes on church steeples, one knows that our churches stand in a direction from east to west, and that the altar is placed in the eastern end. On other buildings an arrow, which points to the north, is placed under the vane.

672

Du Cange refers to Anonymus de Arte Architectonica, cap. 2.

673

Saturn. i. 8, p. 223.

674

The passage of Nicetas may be found in Fabricii Biblioth. Græca, vi. p. 407, and in Banduri Imperium Orientale, Par. 1711, fol. tom. i. lib. vi. p. 108. Nicetas speaks of it again in lib. ii. de Andronico, Venet. 1729, fol. p. 175. He there says that the emperor was desirous of placing his image on the anemodulium, where the cupids stood. Another writer, in Banduri Imper. Orient. i. p. iii. lib. i. p. 17, says expressly that the twelve winds were represented on it, and that it was erected with much astronomical knowledge by Heliodorus, in the time of Leo Isauricus.

675

Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxiv. 7. sect. 18. p. 647.

676

Geographia Nubiensis. Parisiis, 1619, 4to, p. 118.

677

In Vita S. Richardi Cicestrensis. See also Du Cange.

678

In Ughelli Italia Sacra, Romæ, 1652, fol. iv. p. 735, we find the following inscription on a weathercock then existing at Brixen: – “Dominus Rampertus Episc. gallum hunc fieri præcepit an. 820.”

679

Raynerus; cap. 5.

680

Ambrosius, v. cap. 24. – Vossius de Idol. iii. cap. 86. – Pierii Valeriani Hieroglyphica. Franc. ad M. 1678, p. 288.

681

Dictionnaire à Trevoux, 1704, fol. article Girouette.

682

Hirtius de Bello Alexand. cap. 45. – Tacit. Annal. 22. – Livius, lib. xxxvii. cap. 24. – Leonis Tactica, cap. 19, § 40, 42, pp. 342, 343, edit. Meursii. Lugd. Bat. 1612, 4to.

683

De Milit. Navali. Upsaliæ, 1654.

684

Pollux, i. 9, § 90, p. 61.

685

Epist. ad Atticum, v. 12.

686

The Encomium Emmæ is printed in Du Chesne, Historiæ Normannor. Scriptor. Paris, 1619, fol.

687

This honourable memorial of the last half of the eleventh century is explained and illustrated by a figure in Mémoires de l’Academ. des Inscript. Paris, 1733, 4to, vol. viii. p. 602.

688

Herodot. lib. ii. 63. See Winkelmann Hist. de l’Art. – Caylus, Recueil d’Antiquités, i. p. 193. Gori seems to have had in his possession two Egyptian gilt figures. See Mus. Etr. t. i. p. 51.

689

In the books of the Old Testament gilding and gold plates are clearly mentioned. Moses caused several parts of the sanctuary to be overlaid with gold. 1st. The ark of shittim wood was covered with gold both on the outside and inside, Exodus, chap. xxv. ver. 11; also the staves, ver. 13. 2nd. The wooden table with its staves, ver. 23 and 28. 3rd. The altar of burnt incense, chap. xxx. ver. 3. 4th. The boards which formed the sides of the tabernacle, chap. xxvi. ver. 29.

Solomon caused various parts of the temple to be overlaid with gold. 1st. The whole inside of the house, 1 Kings, chap. vi. ver. 21 and 22. 2nd. The altar of burnt incense, ver. 20 and 22. 3rd. The wooden cherubim above seventeen feet in height, ver. 28. 4th. The floor, ver. 30. 5th. The doors of the oracle, on which were carved cherubims, palm-trees and open flowers, ver. 32 and 35, so that the gold accurately exhibited the figures of the carved work.

Now the question is, whether all these were gilt, or covered, or overlaid with gold plates. But when the passages are compared with each other, I am inclined to think that gilding is denoted.

“The Hebrews probably brought the art of gilding with them from Egypt, where it seems to have been very old, as gilding is found not only on mummies, the antiquity of which indeed is uncertain; but, if I am not mistaken, in the oldest temples, on images. It appears also, that in the time of Moses the Hebrews understood the art both of gilding and of overlaying with plates of gold, and expressed both by the general term צפה.”

690

Page 534.

691

Lib. xxxiii. 3. The thicker gold-leaf was called, at that time, bractea Prænestina; the thinner, bractea quæstoria.

692

Osservazioni Istoriche sopra alcum Medaglioni Antichi. In Roma, 1698, fol. p. 370.

693

Lucret. iv. 730. – Martial. viii. 33.

694

Lessing zur Geschichte und Litteratur, iv. p. 309.

695

L’oggidi overo gl’ingegni non inferiori à passati. Venet. 1636. 8vo.

696

Zusammenhang der Künste. Zurich, 1764, 8vo, i. p. 75. For further information see Traité des Monnoies, par Abot de Bazinghen. Paris, 1764, 4to, i. p. 102.

697

Rutty’s Natural History of Dublin, 1772, 2 vols. 8vo, i. p. 264.

698

Von Uffenbach Reisen, iii. p. 218.

699

I was told that Professor Pickel of Würzburg prepares gold-beaters’ skin by means of a varnish, which renders it fitter for use; and that a student of that place had found out the art of making it transparent, in order that the wound might be seen.

700

Lib. xxxiii. § 20, p. 616.

701

Plin. lib. xxxv. § 17, p. 685.

702

Lib. xxxiii. § 32, p. 622. “Cum æra inaurantur, sublitum bracteis pertinacissime retinet. Verum pallore detegit simplices aut prætenues bracteas. Quapropter id furtum quærentes ovi liquore candido usum eum adulteravere.” See also sect. 42, p. 626. I acknowledge that this passage I do not fully comprehend. It seems to say that the quicksilver, when the gold was laid on too thin, appeared through it, but that this might be prevented by mixing with the quicksilver the white of an egg. The quicksilver then remained under the gold; but this is impossible. When the smallest drop of quicksilver falls upon gilding, it corrodes the noble metal, and produces an empty spot. It is therefore incomprehensible to me how this could be prevented by the white of an egg. Did Pliny himself completely understand gilding? Perhaps Pliny only meant to say, that many artists gave out the cold-gilding, where the gold-leaf was laid on with the white of an egg, as gilding by means of heat. I shall here remark, that the reader may spare himself the trouble of turning over Durand’s Histoire Naturelle de l’Or et d’Argent, Londres 1729, fol. This Frenchman did not understand what he translated.

703

Principes de l’Architecture. Paris, 1676, 4to, p. 280.

704

Lessing zur Geschichte und Litteratur, vi. p. 311.

705

Piazza Universale. Venet. 1610, 4to, p. 281.

706

De Rerum Var. xiii. cap. 56.

707

De Atramentis.

708

Mémoires concernant les Chinois, xi. p. 351.

709

De Rerum Inventoribus, Hamb. 1613, 8vo, pp. 41, 37.

710

Luciani Opera, ed. Bipont. v. p. 100.

711

Plutarchi Sympos. iv. in fine.

712

Pausan. x. 38. p. 895.

713

Sat. xiv. 185.

714

Varro De Re Rust. lib. i. 1, 6.

715

Diodor. Siculus, Pausanias, Propertius.

716

Virg. Æneid. viii. 177, 368; ix. 306; xi. 576. To the same purpose are various passages in the Odyssey.

717

Eleg. iv, 1. 12.

718

Lib. iv. 3, 11.

719

See Ferrarius De Re Vestiar. iv. 2. 2. in Thesaurus Antiquitat. Roman. vi. p. 908. Aristophan. Nubes, 1, 1, 73.

720

Livius, v. 2. p. 11. – Florus, 1. 12. – Tacit. Annal. 14. 38. – Corn. Nepos, Agesil. cap. 8. – Lipsius De Militia Rom. lib. v. dial. 1, p. 313.

721

Lib. viii. 55, p. 483. The hair of this animal seems to have been an article of trade, and comprehended under the head of wool, as we find by the Roman code of laws. L. 70. § 9. – De Legat. 3, or Digest. lib. xxxii. leg. 70. 9. Cushions however were stuffed with it. See Waarenkunde, i. p. 271.

722

For the following information on this subject I am indebted to the friendship of Professor Eichorn: – “Of furs being used as dresses of magnificence I find very faint traces. I shall however quote all the passages where allusion is made to furs.

“In Genesis, chap. xxv. ver. 25, Esau is said to have felt to the touch like a hairy garment, אדרת שער. A fur dress must here be meant; for Rebecca endeavoured to make Jacob like his brother, by binding pieces of goats’ skins around his hands and neck. – Genesis xxvii. ver. 16.

“In Joshua, chap. vii. ver. 21, the true reading is אדות שכער, and signifies a Babylonian mantle, consequently one made of wool, respecting which many passages have been collected by various authors, and particularly Fischer in Prolus. de Vers. Græc. Vet. Test. p. 87. One manuscript, according to Kennicot, has however אדרת שעו, a hairy mantle or fur; but this has arisen either through an error in transcribing, one consonant, נ Nun, being omitted; or from the conjecture of some Jewish copyist, who was acquainted with costly furs but not with a Babylonian mantle. If the reading of Kennicot is to be retained, it would, on account of the price, be an important passage, in regard to costly furs.

“Among the Hebrews, the prophets wore fur dresses, if not in general, at any rate very often.

“The mantle of Elijah, 2 Kings, chap. ii. ver. 8, 13, 14, was of fur; because on account of his clothing he was called a hairy man, 2 Kings, chap. i. ver. 8.

“A hairy mantle, as a mark of distinction, is mentioned in the book of Zechariah, chap. xiii. ver. 4.

“In 1 Maccabees, chap. xiii. ver. 37, the high priest Simon obtained from king Demetrius βαίνη, which is certainly a false reading for βαίτα, or βαίτη. The only question is, whether βαίτη, which was merely a shepherd’s dress, consequently made of sheep skins, signified also a dress of state, as there is reason to conjecture from the persons who sent and who received it as a present. See Theocrit. Idyll. iii. 25. et ibi Schol. Furs, as a present, in the hot climate of Bassorah, are mentioned by Niebuhr.”

723

The best refutation of this supposed Vandalism is to be found in Schlözer’s Essay, in the second edition of F. I. L. Mayers Fragmenten aus Paris. Hamb. 1798, 8vo, ii. p. 353. Nowhere do we find that the works of art were destroyed by the Goths or Vandals; on the contrary, it appears that they had sufficient culture to hold them in just estimation. Genseric carried away works of art from Rome, in the same manner as the Romans had done from Greece; but they were carefully packed up and not destroyed; he did therefore what Bonaparte did in those countries which were unable to withstand the force of his armies. If the epithet of Vandalism is to be applied to modern events, it seems most applicable to those who carried away works of art from countries into which the conquerors promised to introduce the rights of man, liberty, and happiness. The Christian writers, even, and among these St. Augustine, admit that the Goths after their victories were not so cruel and rapacious as the Romans. Orosius, who lived in the beginning of the fifth century, relates, that a Goth of high rank, after the taking of Rome, having found in a house some gold and silver vessels which had been plundered from the church of St. Peter, gave notice to Alaric, and that the latter caused them to be sent back safe to the church. The account given of the arms and accoutrements of these northern tribes proves also that they were acquainted with the arts, and that they employed them to ornament their clothing. The fur dresses therefore may have been very handsome.

724

Glossarium, p. 1282.

725

Virgilii Georg. iii. 381. – Ovid. Trist. iii. 10, 19; v. 7, 49. – Ex Ponto, iv. 10, 1. – Justinus, ii. 2, p. 43. – Seneca, epist. 90. – Rutilii Itiner. ii. 49. – Claudian, viii. 466; xxvi. 481. – Ammian. Marcell. xxxi. 2. – Prudentius in Symmachum, ii. 695. – Isidor. Origin. xix. 23. – Sidon. Apollin. epist. i. 2, where he describes Theodoric II. king of the Goths, the son of Theodoric I. and brother of Thorismundus: pellitorum turba satellitum. In epist. vii. 9, the kings of the Goths are called pelliti reges.

726

Tacitus De Moribus German. 17.

727

Variegated furs of this kind sewed together are mentioned by Pollux, vii. 60, p. 729.

728

Plutarchus in Lycurgo. In like manner, the savages in the South Seas are acquainted with the art of giving more beauty and value to their ornaments made of feathers, shells, and the teeth of their enemies killed in battle.

729

Lagerbring Svea Rikes Hist. Part 2. p. 88.

730

At this period the Danes appear to have spent in eating and drinking the treasure they obtained in plundering; they employed their time only in hunting and breeding cattle, and clothed themselves in the skins of their sheep; but Canute endeavoured to introduce among them the Saxon manners and dress. He had invited into his kingdom from Lower Saxony, which at that time was considered the seat of the arts and sciences, and refined manners, a great many workmen and artists, a colony of whom he established in Roeskild, the capital.

731

Digestor. lib. xxxiv.

732

De Habitu Muliebri, cap. i. p. 551.

733

Charact. cap. 5 et 12.

734

Apophthegm.

735

See Herodian, ix. 13.

736

De Institut. Orat. xi. 3, 144.

737

Lex. 25, De Auro, Argento, Mundo.

738

See the instances quoted by G. S. Treuer in Anastasis Veteris Germani Germanæque Feminæ. Helmst. 1729, 4to.

739

Trist. v. 10, 31. For a complete history of their dress the reader must consult the authors quoted in Fabricii Bibliograph. Antiquaria, p. 861; and in Pitisci Lex. Antiq. v. Bracca.

740

In his Annotations on Catullus, p. 100.

741

In that learned and ingenious work, Erklärung der Vasengemälde, i. 3, p. 186.

742

Lib. xxxiv. cap. 14, § 41, p. 667.

743

Cap. 50, § 3.

744

Lib. xi. p. 755: ἀνδρόποδα καὶ δέρματα.

745

Histor. lib. iv. p. 306.

746

Tacitus, Annal. iv. 72.

747

Hist. Animal. xviii. 17. The singular word καναυτᾶνες, respecting which a great deal has been said by Pauw in his annotations to Phile de Animal. 48, p. 246, has lately been translated by Böttiger very happily, by the word kaftane, a kind of Turkish robe. In the present day these dresses of ceremony are of cotton, with flocks of silk worked into them, and for the most part are whitish, with a few rudely-formed pale yellow flowers: but the word formerly may have signified clothes in general, or fur clothing in particular, and perhaps the silk flocks may have been at first intended to represent fur. That furs at present are employed at Bassorah as presents, is proved by Professor Eichorn.

748

Vita Agesilai, p. 602. See also Hellenica, lib. iv.

749

Cyropædia, lib. viii., where he mentions χειρίδας δασείας. The Greeks and the Romans, however, did not wear gloves.

750

Ammian. Marcell. xxii. 5, p. 232.

751

Lib. v. 41.

752

Annal. lib. xiii. In Athenæus, Deipnos. v. p. 197, Callixenus describes Persian counterpanes with figures representing animals, but I do not know whether I ought not, with Valois, to consider them as painted leather, or rather worked tapestry.

753

Digest. lib. xxxix. tit. 4, 16, 7, or L. ult. § 7, de publicanis. In Gronovii Geographia Antiqua, p. 261, it is said that a great trade was carried on in Cappadocia with Babylonian leather. The vestes leporinæ appear to have been made of the hair of the Angora rabbits.

754

L. 7, C. de excus. mun. or Cod. lib. 10, tit. 47, 7.

755

Chardin, iv. p. 245.

756

De Rebus Geticis, cap. 3, p. 612.

757

History of the Germans, vol. ii.

758

Cap. 5, p. 616.

759

Langebek Scriptores Rerum Danicarum, fol. ii. p. 111.

760

Torfæi Hist. Norveg. P. 2, p. 34. Compare Schlözer’s Nordische Geschichte in Algem. Welthistor. vol. xxxi. pp. 445, 458. – Having heard from M. Schlözer that the first certain traces of the Russian fur trade were to be found in the Russian Chronicles, works never yet used, I requested him, as the only person in Germany who could draw from these sources, to transmit to me what he had remarked on that subject. I am indebted to him, therefore, for the following valuable information, the result of a laborious comparison of various manuscript chronicles, for which he will no doubt receive the reader’s thanks.

“The following passages are taken from the ten Russian Chronicles, the greater part of them still in manuscript, as a proof that from the ninth century tribute in furs was demanded from the people in Russia by their conquerors.

I. “In the year 859, the Waringians, who came by sea, had tribute from the Tschudi, the Slavi, the Meri, and the Kriwitsches, a squirrel per man. The Chazares (in the Crimea) had tribute from the Poles (the inhabitants of the Ukrain), the Severians and the Wæitsches, a squirrel for each fireplace or hearth.

“The squirrel Sciurus vulgaris had in the old and new Russian language the five following names: – 1st. ‘Bēla.’ This primitive word has been lost in the new Russian language, but is still preserved in the Chronicles, and in the adjectives ‘bēlij’ and ‘bēliczij mēch, Grauwerk’ (squirrel-skins). ‘Bēl’ in all the Sclavonic dialects signifies white. Can any connexion be discovered between the squirrel and a white colour? 2nd. ‘Bēlka,’ the diminutive of the former, is at present generally current. 3rd. ‘Wēkscha,’ from which is derived, 4th. ‘Wēkschitza,’ the diminutive. 5th. ‘Weweritza’ is old, but still exists in the Polish.

“The variations of these words which occur in manuscripts are abundant, and some of them exceedingly laughable. One transcriber has ‘bēla;’ most of the rest add ‘wēkscha,’ ‘wēkschitza’ or ‘weweritza,’ as if ‘bēla’ were the adjective white. Two manuscripts say expressly, ‘bēla,’ that is ‘wēkscha.’ In one, however, from ‘bēla weweritza’ has been made ‘bēla ‘dewitza,’ a fair or beautiful maid.

II. “In the year 883 Oleg went against the Drewians and Severians, whom he obliged to pay tribute, each a black marten.

“‘Po czernē kunē’ stands in all the manuscripts; one only has the diminutive ‘kunitzē.’ Another bad manuscript, which has ‘konē,’ a black horse, is not worthy of any remark.

III. “In 969 Svātoslav spoke to his mother and boyars: ‘I am not fond of Kief; I will reside in Pereyaslawetz on the Danube. There I shall be in the middle of my lands, to which every thing good in my territories flows: from the Greeks gold and pavoloki (silk-stuffs?), and wine and fruit of every kind; from the Tscheches (Bohemians) and Hungarians silver and horses; from Russia skora, wax, honey, and servants.’ Skora, skura, furs (according to the Great Lexicon of the Russian Academy), from which is derived skornak, similar furs prepared. That coarse skins or furs (in Russian schurka), such as the terga boum, imposed by the Romans on the Frieslanders, are not here meant, is proved by a passage in the Chronicle of Nicon, vol. ii. p. 15, where it is related of a savage people, who lived far to the north on the Ural, that they gave skora for a knife and a hatchet.

“That marten-skins, as well as pieces of them (mortki) and of squirrel-skins, were used as money in Novogorod, till the year 1411, is well-known from Saml. Russ. Geschichte, vol. v. p. 430.”

761

Du Cange Glossarium.

762

De Animantibus Subter. p. 490.

763

Varro De Ling. Lat. lib. vi. p. 51.

764

Seneca, epist. 90.

765

Pallas, Novæ Species Quadr. e Glirium ord. 1778, p. 120.

766

Lib. viii. 37.

767

Pallas, p. 142. I shall here take occasion to remark, that the use of this animal’s skin, as well as the name, occurs in the eleventh century, in Bernardus Sylvester.

768

Lib. ii. ep. 2.

769

See a dissertation De l’Origine des Couleurs et des Métaux dans les Armoiries, added by Du Cange to his edition of Joinville. Paris, 1668, fol. p. 127. See also the article Hermine, in his Glossary to Geoffroy de Ville-Hardouin’s Conqueste de Constantinople; or the same in Diction. Etymolog.