Theophrastus – Hill 1746
Theophrastus – John Hill, Θεοφραστου του Ερεσιου Περι των λιθων βιβλιον. Theophrastus’s History of Stones. With an English Version, and Critical and Philosophical Notes, Including the Modern History of the Gems, &c. described by that Author, and of many other of the Native Fossils. To which are added Two Letters: One to Dr. James Parsons, F. R. S. On the Colours of the Sapphire and Turquoise. And the other to Martin Folkes, Esq; Doctor of Laws, and President of the Royal Society; Upon the Effects of different Menstruums on Copper. Both tending to illustrate the Doctrine of the Gems being coloured by Metalline Particles, London [C. Davis] 1746.
Theophrastus (c. 372–287 BC) was a Greek philosopher and natural scientist, and Aristotle’s successor as head of the Athenian Lyceum. His works address questions of ethics and metaphysics as well as various branches of natural science, especially botany and mineralogy. The treatise Περὶ λίθων [On Stones] was translated into English by the man of letters and naturalist John Hill (c. 1714–1775). A bilingual Greek–English edition, accompanied by Hill’s extensive commentary, was first published in London in 1746. From the treatise we present translated passages and notes devoted to ochre, sinopia, and other mineral pigments.
pp. 119–131
LXXXVI. It may also be proper to mention here the Earths which are naturally endued with a Quality of petrifying Substances immersed in them; since those which yield peculiar and differentc Juices, have unquestionably some fixed and peculiar Properties, and are distinct Kinds; as are also those which supply Nourishment to Plantsd.
c The various Accounts we have of petrifying Earths and Waters, are all idle, erroneous, and imaginary, according to the ingenious and excellent Dr. Woodward, who affirms, that even what has been reported so confidently of the petrifying Water of the Lake Oneagh in Ireland, one of the most famous petrifying Springs on record, has been shewn, by a more accurate Enquiry and Trials, not to be true; but that the petrified Wood brought thence, has been all of it lodged in the Earth at the Bottom of that Lake at the Time of the Deluge. If this be the Case here, it is, in all Probability, in other Places too; and what gives it the better Face of Probability is, that petrified Wood is as often found in the loose Strata of Gravel, &c. and lodged in Earth or Stone, as in the Beds of these Waters. Some may imagine, from having seen the Effects of the dropping Well at Knaresborough, Rushbank, and several other Springs in Northamptonshire, Chedworth, and Norleach Springs in Gloucestershire, and many other petrifying Springs, as they are called, in England, and elsewhere, that this is denying Things for which they have the Evidence of their Senses: But such Persons are to be taught, that what they esteem Petrifactions, are no other than Incrustations of sparry, argillaceous, and other Matter, brought away with these Waters in their Passage through the Strata, and settling from them again. There is great Difference between changing the Substance, and only covering the Surface of a Body. These Petrifactions, as they are called, being no other than Precipitations of Matter too heavy to be longer sustained in the Water; and which, being very fine, adapts itself to every Prominence and Cavity of the Body it settles upon, and exactly assumes its Shape. The first Process in these Operations of Nature forms only an extremely thin Crust over the Body; on which there after settle at Times many more, often to a Covering of considerable Thickness in the whole, but always giving evident Proofs of the Manner in which it was successively formed, by the Number of thin Strata of which it is composed.
d Vegetable Mould, I have before observed, is no genuine Fossil.
LXXXVII. Nor ought those to be less considered which are singular and remarkable in their Colours, and for that Reason used by Painters.
LXXXVIII. The Production of these, as was observed in the Beginning of this Treatise, is from the mere Afflux or Percolation of their constituent Particles,
LXXXIX. Some of these seem burnt, and to have suffered Changes by means of Fire, ase Sandarach, Orpiment, and others of that Kind; all of them, however, plainly speaking, owe their present Form to the Exhalation of their more humid Parts; and these, in particular, seem to have been dried, and, as it were, smoaked, They are found in Mines of Gold and Silver, and some in those of Copper also.
e Orpiment and Sandarach have been spoken of in general already; they are found in different Degrees of Purity and Beauty: In some Places, instead of the fine foliaceous Flakes, or shining Glebes, in which they are dug in Mines, they are taken up impure, ill-coloured, and in form of a coarse Powder; the yellow looking more like dirty Fragments of common Brimstone, and the red like dusty Pieces of a bad Bole, than like what they really are. These are, however, purchased by our Painters for Cheapness; and they say, with proper Management, make as good Colours as the finer Pieces; though, in their Barrels, they look more like Ashes than the beautiful Substances they really are. These come from some Part of Germany. And if the Orpiments and Sandarachs which happened to come in Theophrastus’s way, were of this Kind, there is nothing strange in his supposing them to have been acted upon by subterranean Fires. We know at present seven distinct Kinds; a plated and spangled yellow; a spangled red; a solid red: and a yellow, a green, and a white of these coarser kinds. All the yellow are red when burnt: but those here named are red naturally.
XC. Of this kind aref Orpiment, Sandarach, Chrysocolla,g Reddle, Ochre, and the Lapis Armenus; but this last is scarce, and found only in small Quantities; whereas there are sometimes whole Veins of the others. Ochre is said to be found generally heaped together; and Reddle scattered, as it were, every way. Painters use this Reddle in their Pictures, as also Ochre, instead of Orpiment; for when powdered they scarce at all differ in Colour, however different they appear in the Mass.
f The Ochre here meant is the common yellow Kind. A Confirmation that the ἀῤῥενικὸν of the Antients was Orpiment, and not a white Arsenick, as some have erroneously judged, is this Passage of this Author, where he says, It is, when powdered, of the Colour of the yellow Ochre.
The Yellow Ochre of many Parts of this Kingdom is excellent for the Use of Painters; and some of it finer than any in the World: It is found of two Kinds; the one in great Plenty, constituting, in many Places, whole Strata of very considerable Thickness. This is, the most common, but is coarse, and often mixed with arenaceous and other heterogene Matter in different Quantities. The other Kind is found in the perpendicular Fissures of Strata. This is not common, nor to be had in any great Plenty, but is ever of a glorious Colour, and perfectly pure, and crumbles between the Fingers into an impalpable Powder. All the Matter which composes it must have been extremely fine and subtle, or it never could have got into those Places; into which there was no way for it, but through the Pores of the solid Strata. I know not whether our Painters are acquainted with this Kind, but it must, as Woodward has observed, be highly preferable to the common ones for their Use, because of its Fineness; and it might be had in some Quantity on searching the proper Places: I remember to have seen much of it in different Parts about Mendip Hills in Somersetshire, from whence I brought the Specimens in my Possesion.
g Reddle, or Red Ochre, is as common and as good in England as the Yellow: it is, like that, generally found itself forming Strata, but sometimes of a glorious Colour and extreme Fineness, in Fissures of other Matter. I have a Specimen of some from the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, very little inferior to the Sort brought from the Island of Ormuz in the Persian Gulph; and so much valued and used by our Painters under the Name of Indian Red. It is, indeed, so like, both in Colour and Quality, that it is used for it, as the People employed in taking it up informed me; and sent to London to be sold under its Name. On comparing it with some of the true Persian kind, which I had from the East Indies, I find it of a paler Colour, but of a much finer Texture; and therefore, upon the whole, perhaps not less valuable.
Misunderstandings of Pliny, occasioned by Mistakes in the Copies, have been the Occasion of some very unlucky Errors about the μίλτος of the Greeks; which has been concluded, from what he has been supposed to have said, to be Cinnabar, which they called also Minium. The Passage which has given Occasion to these Mistakes stands in most Copies thus, Milton vocant Græci Minium, quidam Cinnabari; which seems an absolute Affirmation of this; but is, in reality, no other than a double Error; in the Words, and in the Pointing: And what Pliny meant to have said is evidently no other than this, Rubricam Milton Græci vocant, & Minium Cinnabari. The Greeks call Reddle Miltos, and Minium Cinnabar, which is exactly the Truth, And the Passage, as thus restored by Salmasius, stands accordingly, Jam enim Trojanis temporibus rubrica in honore erat, qui naves ea commendat, alias circa picturas, pigmentaque rarus. Milton vocant Græci, miniumque Cinnabari. Homer, speaking of the Grecian Ships, has Νῆας μιλτοπαρήους, and it is impossible he should mean by it, that they were stained with the Minium, or Cinnabar, which was not known till after his Time, as we shall see by this Author’s Account of it. Cinnabar was originally the Indian Name of the Gum we now call Sanguis Draconis; and was given to this other Substance (called also Minium,) from its Resemblance to that Drug in Colour.
XCI. There are also in some Places peculiar Pits of Reddle and Ochre, as in Cappadocia, from whence they are taken in vast Quantities: But in these Pits, it is said, the Labourers are in Danger of Suffocation; which unhappy Accident sometimes comes on very suddenly.
XCII. The best Reddle, for there are many Kinds, is thought to be that of Cea, and particularly that which is taken from the Reddle Pits; for it is also sometimes found inh Iron Mines.
h Reddle always contains in it more or less of Iron; and there is one kind of it called Smitt in England, which is sometimes so rich, as to be worth working for that Metal, and has the Name of an Iron Ore. What this Author observes, of its being better in the Reddle Pits than in Iron Mines, is contrary to what we find now in England. The Reddle I just before have mentioned, as sometimes sold in London under the Name of Indian Red, is much the finest I have ever seen; and that was not from a Reddle Pit, but from among the Iron Ore in the Forest of Dean. I have seen the Pits peculiarly worked for this Substance in Derbyshire and Staffordshire, and have of the Reddle from them, which is good, but much inferior to that of the Forest of Dean in all Respects: And, indeed, Reason informs us that it always naturally must be so; for it must, as I before observed, necessarily be finer in the Fissures of Strata; than where it constitutes Strata itself. And as all Reddle owes its Colour, which is its Value, to Iron, it will naturally have most of it, when nearest the largest Quantities of that Metal: I can therefore. see no Reason for that of the Pits being esteemed the best by the Antients, unless they valued it for its Texture and Consistence: Then, indeed, that must be preferred, as it is the most compact and dense; the other being ever looser and more crumbly.
XCIII. There are beside these also, thei Lemnian Reddle, and the Sinopic, as it is commonly called; but it is dug in Cappadocia, and thence carried to Sinope. There are particular Pits in Lemnos, in which nothing but the Earth is dug.
i There were among the Antients two Earths of Lemnos well known and in common Use, though to different Purposes: These Distinctions have been since lost, and that Loss has caused us a great deal of Confusion: These two were distinguished by the Names of Terra Lemnia, and Rubrica Lemnia, Γῆ Λήμνια and Μίλτος Λήμνια, the Lemnian Reddle, and Lemnian Earth: The first of these was used by Painters, as it was taken out of the Pit; the second was first made into Cakes, and sealed with great Ceremonies; and was in very high Esteem in Medicine. I shall be the more particular on these Earths, as it will naturally lead to a better Understanding of some other of the Earths now much in use in Medicine; the Names of which at least are so. The great Occasion of the Errors about the Lemmian Earths, is the Mistake of Pliny, in confounding them together, as he evidently has done; not distinguishing the medicinal sealed Earth of that Place, from the Reddle used by Painters. The sealed Earth was esteemed sacred, and the Priests alone were suffered to meddle with it. They mixed it with Goat’s Blood, made the Impression of a Seal upon it; and it was, therefore, called σφρᾳγις, and Sphragis by the Latins; ἡ δὲ Λημνία λεγομένη γῆ ἐϛὶν ἐκ τινὸς ὑπονόμȣ ἀντρώδȣς ἀναφερομένη καὶ μιγνυμένη αἵματι ἀιγείῳ, ἣν οἱ ἐκεῖ ἄνθρωποι ἀναπλάσσοντες, καὶ σφαγιζόμενοι εἰκόνι ἀιγος, σφαγῖδα κααλοῦσιν, Dioscorides. This, therefore, was the Sealed Earth of Lemnos, the Earth used in Medicine, and called by the Physicians Lemnian Earth: The Hand the Priests had in the making it up, got it the Name of Sacred Earth, Γῆ ἱερά. And this seems to be the very same with the true Terra Lemnia used at this time; which is a fat unctuous Clay, of a pale red Colour, made up in Cakes of about half an Ounce Weight, sometimes less, and brought from Lemnos, and many other Parts of the Turkish Dominions: This we now call Terra Lemnia Rubra, by way of Distinction from a white Earth, less unctuous and more astringent than the red, which is dug in Lemnos only. And we have sometimes, beside these, an unsealed Earth from the same Place, which is yellowish, with blackish Specks: it has this Advantage of the other, that we are sure it is genuine; for we are sensible they are too often counterfeited.
These were the Terræ Lemniæ used in Medicine. The Rubrica Lemnia was a kind of Reddle of a firm Consistence and deep red Colour, dug in the same Place, but never made into any Form, or sealed; but purchased in the rough Glebes by Artificers of many kinds, who had Uses for it in Colouring. That Pliny confounds these two Substances is to be seen in this Passage: Rubricæ genus in ea voluere maximè intelligi. Quidam secunde auctoritatis, palmam enim Lemniæ dabant. Minio proxima hæc est, multum antiquis celebrata, cum insula in qua nascitur, nec nisi signata venundabatur: unde & Sphragidem appellavere: Where it is evident, that he thought the Lemnian Reddle was the Substance sealed and called Sphragis, or Sealed Earth. But that they were not the same, and the Earth, and not the Reddle was the Substance which was sealed, is evident from Galen, l. i. de Antidotis, Καθάπερ ἐπὶ Λεμνίας γῆς καὶ μίλτȣ, καλεῖν δ’ αὐτὴν ἄμεινον ȣ μίλτον, ἀλλὰ γῆν. ἔστι γάρ τις Λεμνία μίλτος ἐν τῇ Λήμνῳ, γεννωμένη πρὸς ἄλλας χρείας ἐπιτήδειος, ȣ μὴν εἰς ἃς ἡ καλουμένη Λημνία σφραγίς.
XCIV. There are three kinds of thek Sinopic; of a deep Red, another of a whitish Colour, and the other of a middle Colour between the other two, which is called the pure simple Kind, because it is used without mixing, whereas they mix the others.
k The Sinopic Earth, which we know at present, is the first Kind mentioned by this Author; the other two we are wholly unacquainted with, though among the Antients they were much in Esteem with Painters. Our Rubrica Sinopica is a dense, heavy, firm Substance, of a deep red Colour, staining the Fingers in handling, and of a styptic astringent Taste. Tournefort imagines it a native Crocus Martis; and certain it is, that it owes its Colour, at least, to that Metal.
It is dug at this Time, as it was in that of Theophrastus, in Cappadocia, and carried to Sinope for Sale, from whence it has its Name, and from whence Sinopis became afterwards a general Name for the Red Ochres. Μίλτος εἶ δος ἐρυθρὸν Σινώπιδος, Hesychius; and so many others. If the present Esteem for this Substance was greater than it is, as indeed I can on Experience affirm it ought to be, it might be had, I believe, in many other Places beside Cappadocia. I have some of it perfectly fine, which was dug in the New Jerseys in America, where it is frequently found at about 15 or 20 Feet deep, and is called, (I suppose from its Colour and staining the Hands) Blood-stone. It was originally used, not only in Painting, but in Medicine; and though now neglected, and not known in the Shops, deserves to be brought into Use again, being a much better Astringent, as I have found by repeated Trials of that from America, than any of the Earths now in use.
XCV. There is also a kind of this made of Ochre, by burning, but it is not nearly so good as the others. The making this was an Invention of Cydias, who took the Hint of it, as is said, from observing, in a House which was on fire, that some Ochre which was there, when half burnt, assumed a red Colour.
XCVI. The way of making the factitious is this: They put the Ochre into new earthen Vessels, which they cover with Clay and set in Furnaces; and these, as they grow hot, heat also the Ochre, and the greater Degree of Fire they give, the deeper and more strongly purple the Matter becomes. The Origin of the native Kinds seems to testify that this Method is not irrational, for all these seem to have suffered Changes by the Action of Fire: From whence we may rationally conclude, that this way of making the factitious, is either of the same kind, or at least very analogous to that used by Nature for the Production of the genuinel.
l The making a Red Ochre from the Yellow by burning is as well known, and as much practised among the People who deal in Colours for Painting now, as it was in the Time of this Author. I cannot but observe, however, that his calling this a Sinopis, is a Proof of what I have before observed, that that Word became a Name for all the Substances of the Red Ochre kind. As to what this Author observes, of the native Red Ochres owing their Colour to Fire, it is very certain, that most of them shew no Marks of ever having been acted on by that Element. And we know very well, that the ferrugineous Particles which can make the Matter red in burning, can also impart that Colour to it without the Assistance of Fire. Notwithstanding which, it must be allowed, that there are some of these red Substances; and not only these, but some other Bodies, particularly some of the Hæmatites kind, which seem, even in their native Beds, to carry evident Marks of their having been wrought on and changed by Fire; though it is not easy to say, how or when it should have happened.
XCVII. The Reddle also is of two Kinds, the native, and the factitiousll.
ll The factitious Sinopis just mentioned, was no other than a factitious Reddle, properly speaking; and what the Author here mentions, was probably another Kind, made from some other Species of Yellow Ochre, and called Reddle, from its being of a pale red, and resembling that of the common native Red Ochre; just as the other was called factious Sinopis, from its being of a deeper Colour, and resembling the genuine Sinopis of Cappadocia.