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

1362

Fabricii Biblioth. Med. et Inf. Ætatis, i. p. 1131.

1363

Mauricii Ars Militaris, edita a Joh. Scheffero. Upsaliæ 1664, 8vo p. 22.

1364

Leonis Tactica, edit. Meursii cap. vi. § 10. p. 57.

1365

Lib. ii. cap. 8. p. 64.

1366

Tactica, cap. xii. § 53, p. 150.

1367

Both passages are quoted by Du Cange from the Gloss. Isidori. The latter word signified also the saddle-bow; for Suidas says, ‘Ἀστράβη, τὸ ἐπὶ τῶν ἐφιππίων ξύλον ὃ κρατοῦσιν οἱ καθεζόμενοι’. Lignum quod est in ephippiis, quod sessores tenent. Allusion is made to this saddle-bow by the emperor Frederic II. De Arte Venandi, ii. 71, p. 152, where he describes how a falconer should mount his horse: “Ponat pedem unum in staffa sellæ, accipiens arcum sellæ anteriorem cum manu sua sinistra, supra quam jam non est falco, posteriorem autem cum dextra, super quam est falco.” Nicetas, however, in Manuel. Comnen. lib. ii. p. 63, gives that name to the whole saddle; for we are told that the Scythians, when about to cross a river, placed their arms on the saddle (ἀστράβην), and laying hold of the tails of their horses, swam after them.

1368

Leonis Grammatici Chronographia, printed in the Paris Collection of the Byzantine Historians, with Theophanis Chronograph. 1655, fol. p. 470.

1369

De Bellis Punicis, edit. Tollii, p. 107.

1370

Odyss. lib. i. 155.

1371

Monumens de la Monarchie Françoise, i. tab. 35.

1372

Aimonius De Miraculis Sancti Benedicti, ii. 20.

1373

Fredericus II. De Venat. lib. ii. cap. 71. According to Du Cange, stirrups as well as spurs occur seldom on seals in the eleventh century. In the thirteenth they are more frequent. See P. W. Gerkens Anmerkungen über die Siegel. Stendal, 1786, 8vo, part 2. Heineccius De Sigillis, p. 205. I shall here remark that Cœlius Rhodiginus, xxi. 31, is mistaken when he says that Avicenna calls stirrups subsellares. Licetus, De Lucernis, p. 786, has proved that this Arabian author speaks only of a covering to secure the feet from frost.

1374

Instances of this pride have been collected by Du Cange in his annotations on Cinnamus, p. 470, and more may be found in his Dictionary, vol. vi. p. 681. When steps were not erected on the highways, a metal or wooden knob was affixed to each side of the saddle, which the rider, when about to mount, laid hold of, and then caused his servant to assist him. The servants also were often obliged to throw themselves down that their master might step upon their back. See Constantin. De Ceremoniis Aulæ Byzant. p. 242. A, 6; and p. 405, B, 3; also Reiske in his Annotations, p. 135.

1375

In Cantacuz. edit Wernsdorfii. Lipsiæ, 1768, 8vo, p. 218, who calls stirrups κλίμακες, scalæ.

1376

The principal works with which I am acquainted that contain information respecting the antiquity of horse-shoes, are the following: Pancirollus De Rebus Deperditis, ii. tit. 16, p. 274. – J. Vossius in Catulli Opera. Ultrajecti, 1691, 4to, p. 48. – Lexicon Militare, auctore Carolo de Aquino. Romæ, 1724, fol. ii. p. 307. – Gesner in his Index to Auctores Rei Rusticæ, art. Soleæ ferreæ. – Montfaucon, Antiquité Expliquée, iv. liv. 3. p. 79. – Le Beau, in Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions. vol. xxxix. p. 538. – Archæologia, London, 1775, 4to, iii. p. 35 and 39.

1377

Histor. Anim. ii. 6, p. 165, edit. Scaligeri. They appear not to have been used at all times, but only when the hoofs began to be injured.

1378

Hist. Nat. lib. xi. cap. 43.

1379

A few observations respecting spartum maybe of service to those who wish to carry their researches further. The ancients, and particularly the Greeks, understood by that appellation several species of plants which could be used and manufactured like flax or hemp, and which appear to have been often mentioned under that general name. The Greeks however understood commonly by spartum a shrub, the slender branches of which were woven into baskets of various kinds, and which produced young shoots that could be prepared and manufactured in the same manner as hemp; and this plant, as has already been remarked by the old botanists, is the Spartium junceum, or Spanish broom, which grows wild on dry land, that produces nothing else, in the Levant and in the southern parts of Europe. This broom is that described and recommended in Comment. Instituti Bonnoniensis, vi. p. 118, and vi. p. 349. The French translator of the papers here alluded to is much mistaken when he thinks, in Journal Economique, 1785, Novembre, that the author speaks of the common broom (Spartium scoparium) that grows on our heaths. M. Broussonet, in Mémoires d’Agriculture, par la Société de Paris, 1785, p. 127, has also recommended the cultivation of the Spart. junceum, under the name of genêt d’Espagne, and enumerated the many uses to which it may be applied. The people in Lower Languedoc, especially in the neighbourhood of Lodeve, make of it table-cloths, shirts and other articles of dress. The offal or rind serves as firing. This spartum of the Greeks, or Spartium junceum of the botanists, is the species called by Pliny, book xxxix. chap. 9, genista, and which he improperly considers as the Spanish and African spartum. The latter is certainly the Stipa (Macrochloa) tenacissima, which grows in Spain and Africa, called there at present sparto or esparto, and which is still prepared and employed as described by Pliny, b. xix. c. 2. Baskets, mattresses, ship-cables, and other strong ropes were made of it; and when this grass had been prepared like hemp, it was used for various fine works. Even at present the Spaniards make of it a kind of shoes called alpergates, with which they carry on a great trade to the Indies, where they are very useful on the hot, rocky and sandy soil. [Moritz Willkomm, in his Botanical Notices from Spain (Annals of Natural History for March 1845), notices among the most valuable vegetable productions of Spain, “the celebrated Esparto (Macrochloa tenacissima), which, growing on many of the hills situated near the sea, forms an important article of trade in South Spain, since this tough grass is used partly for the plaiting of coverings for rooms and balconies, and for making various sorts of baskets, especially panniers for mules, chairs, and the peculiar sandals which are worn all over the kingdom; and partly worked into ropes, which are in great request, and are manufactured in great quantity at Marseilles.”] Whether the ancients made shoes for their cattle of the Spartium junceum or the Stipa tenacissima, I will not venture to determine. It is probable that the former was used by the Greeks, and the latter by the Romans; and it is highly worthy of being here remarked, that in modern times a kind of socks for horses were made of a species of spartum, as we learn from J. Leonis Africæ Descriptio, lib. iii. p. 120. The same author however says expressly, p. 96, that common shoes of iron were also used.

1380

Columella, vi. 12, 3: “Spartea munitur pes.” vi. 15, 1: “Spartea calceata ungula curatur.” Vegetius, i. 26, 3: “Spartea calceare curabis.” See also ii. 45, 3. Galen De Alim. Facult. i. 9: Σπαρτὸς ἐξ οὗ πλέκουσι ὑποδήματα ὑποζυγίοις. Is there not some reason therefore to conclude that this practice was followed not merely in regard to cattle only that were diseased?

1381

Sueton. Vita Neronis, cap. 30.

1382

Plin. lib. xxxiii. cap. 11. – Scheffer, De Re Vehiculari, proves that we are here to understand she-mules.

1383

Dio Cassius, lxii. 28, and lxxiii. Commodus caused the hoofs of a horse to be gilt.

1384

Commentar. in Epictetum, lib. iii.

1385

Xenophon De Cyri Min. Expedit. p. 228.

1386

B. F. Hermann, Beytrage zur Physik. Œkonomie der Russischen Länder. Berlin, 1786, 8vo, part i. p. 250. The same account respecting the dogs of Kamtschatka is given in Cook’s last Voyage.