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

1125

The oldest plague of which we find any account in history, that so fully described by Thucydides, book ii., was expressly said to have come from Egypt. Evagrius in his Histor. Ecclesiast. iv. 29, and Procopius De Bello Persico, ii. 22, affirm also that the dreadful plague in the time of the emperor Justinian was likewise brought from Egypt. It is worthy of remark, that on both these occasions, the plague was traced even still further than Egypt; for Thucydides and the writers above-quoted say that the infection first broke out in Ethiopia, and spread thence into Egypt and other countries.

1126

They may be found in Muratori Scriptores Rerum Italic. tom. xvi. p. 560, and xviii. p. 82, thence copied into Chenot, p. 147. See also Boccacio, Decamer. Amst. 1679, p. 2.

1127

[“The Venetians seem to have been the first who established quarantine in their dominions about the year 1484, soon after the Turks became their neighbours in Europe; the constant intercourse which they maintained with those powerful neighbours, either in war or by commerce, rendering it necessary for them to take this and other precautions against the introduction of this contagion into their country.”]

1128

De Peste, in Mead’s Opera Medica.

1129

Everything said by Le Bret on this subject may be found equally full in D. C. Tentori, Saggio sulla Storia Civile, &c., della Republica di Venezia. Ven. 1786, 8vo, t. vi. p. 391. As Sandi in his Principi di Storia Civile della Republica di Venezia, 9 vols. 4to, 1755–1769, gives the same account, lib. viii. cap. 8. art. 4, they must have both got their information from the same source.

1130

Historia Vinitiana. Vinegia, 1552, 4to, lib. i. p. 10.

1131

L’Hoggidi, overo il mondo non peggiore, ne più calamitoso del passato. Ven. 1627, 8vo, p. 610.

1132

De Republica Venetorum, lib. iv.

1133

Thesaurus Antiquitatum Italiæ, v. 2, p. 241.

1134

Topografia Veneta, overo Descrizione della Stato Veneto. Venezia, 1786, 8vo, iv. p. 263.

1135

Lib. i. cap. 11, p. 65.

1136

Account of the principal Lazarettos, Lond. 1789, 4to, p. 12.

1137

Cronica di Verona, in Verona, 1747, 4to, iii. p. 93.

1138

See G. W. Wedelii exercitatio de quadragesima medica, in his Centuria Exercitationum Medico-philologicarum. Jenæ, 1701, 4to, decas iv. p. 16. Wedel mentions various diseases in which Hippocrates determines the fortieth day to be critical. Compare Rieger in Hippocratis Aphoris. Hag. Com. 1767, 8vo, i. p. 221.

1139

Martini Lange Rudimenta Doctrinæ de Peste. Offenbachii 1791, 8vo. See Gottingische Anzeigen von gelehrt. Sachen, 1791, p. 1799.

1140

The simplest or worst articles are not always the oldest or the first. The deterioration of a commodity is often the continuation of an invention, which, when once begun, is by industry practised in every form, in order that new gain may be acquired from each variation. The earliest printers, for example, had not the art of printing with such slight ink and on such bad paper as ours commonly employ; and Aldus, perhaps, were he now alive, would be astonished at the cheap mode of printing some of our most useful and popular books.

1141

Origny, in Dictionnaire des Origines, v. p. 332. Journal Œconomique, 1755, Mars, p. 86. Savary, Dictionnaire de Commerce, iv. p. 903.

1142

I shall here insert the words of the patent: “To all those to whom these presents shall come, greeting. Whereas our trusty and well-beloved subject and servant Jerome Lanyard hath informed us, that he by his endeavours hath found out an art and mystery by affixing of wool, silk and other materials of divers colours upon linen cloth, silk, cotton, leather and other substances, with oil, size and other cements, to make them useful and serviceable for hangings and other occasions, which he calleth Londrindiana, and that the said art is of his own invention, not formerly used by any other within this realm, &c.” – Rymeri Fœdera, tom. xix. London, 1732, fol. p. 554. The following observations may serve to illustrate all works of this nature in general. Painting, according to the most common technical meaning, may be divided into three kinds. In the first the colours or pigments are mixed with a viscous or glutinous fluid to bind them, and make them adhere to the body which is to be painted. Gums, glue, varnish, &c. may be used for this purpose. Vegetable colours will not admit of such additions, because they contain gum in their natural composition. Another kind consists in previously washing over the parts that are to be painted with some viscous substance, and then laying on the colours as the figures may require. Size or cement (I use the word in the most extensive sense) is of such a nature that either in drying or glazing it becomes hard, and binds the colours. To this method belongs not only gilding, imitating bronze and making velvet-paper-hangings, but also painting on glass and in enamel. By the third method the colours are applied to the ground without any binding substance: they are therefore more liable to decay, as is the case in painting with crayons; but they will however adhere better when the pigments consist of very fine particles like ceruse, or black-lead. It would be a great acquisition if a substance could be found out to bind the colours used in this art without injuring them, or to fix the crayons. The third kind of painting is not with colours, but with different bodies ready coloured, which are joined together in pieces according to a copy, either by cement or plaster, as in mosaic, or by working them into each other, as in weaving and sewing, which is painting with the needle… Are not the works of art almost like those of nature, each connected together as a chain? Do not the boundaries of one art approach those of another? Do they not even touch each other? Those who do not perceive this approximation are like people unacquainted with botany, who cannot remark the natural order of plants. But if a connoisseur observe a gap in the chain of artificial works, we are to suppose that some links are still wanting, the discovery of which may become a merit to more ingenious ages.

1143

Journal Œconomique, 1756, Fevrier, p. 92.

1144

Both his brothers, John and Benedict Audran, were celebrated engravers.

1145

Nachrichten von Künstlern und Künstsachen. Leipzig, 1768, 8vo, ii. p. 56. The author, giving an account of his travels through the Netherlands, says, “Before I leave the Hague I must not omit to mention M. Eccard’s particular invention for making paper-hangings. He prints some which appear as if worked through with gold and silver. They are fabricated with much taste, and are not dear.”

1146

Haus- und Land-bibliothek, iii. p. 90.

1147

The author says, “I shall give an account of a beautiful art, by which one may cover chairs, screens and other articles of the like kind, with a substance of various colours made of wool, cut or chopped very fine, and cleaned by being made to pass through a hair-sieve… I remember that two Swabian women travelled about through some countries, and taught people this art, by which means they gained a good deal of money.” Of the author I have been able to procure no information. His book is a compilation selected without any taste, and according to the ideas of the seventeenth century, from different writers, almost always without mentioning the sources from which the articles are taken; but it deserves a place in public libraries, because it contains here and there some things which may help to illustrate the history of agriculture and the arts.

1148

Kunkels Glasmacher-Kunst. Nurnb. 1743, 4to, p. 368. J. J. Marxens Neu vermehrte Materialkammer.

1149

Volkmann, Silesia Subterranea. Leipzig, 1720, 4to, p. 52.