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

Leonis Tactica, v. 4. p. 51. – In the passage where he names every thing belonging to the equipage of a horseman, he says, πέδικλα σελιναῖα σιδηρὰ μετὰ καρφίων αὐτῶν. I shall here first remark, that after πέδικλα there ought to be a comma, for by that word is meant the ropes with which saddled horses were fastened. Du Cange says πεδικλοῦν signifies to bind. See likewise Scheffer’s Annotations on Mauricii Ars Militaris, p. 395. The translator also has improperly said, “Pedicla, id est calceos lunatos ferreos cum ipsis carphiis.” Κάρφια means nails, as Du Cange has proved by several instances, and here horse-shoe nails. The word may be found for the second time in the tenth century, in the Tactica of the Emperor Constantine, where the whole passage, however, is taken from Leo without the least variation; so that we may suppose Constantine understood it in the same sense as Leo. It is used, for the third time, by the same emperor, twice in his book on the Ceremonial of his own court. In p. 265, where he speaks of the horses (τὰ ἱππάρια) which were to be procured for the imperial stable; these, he says, were to be provided with every thing necessary, and to have also σελιναῖα. In page 267 it is said further, that a certain number of pounds of iron should be given out from the imperial stores to make σελιναῖα, and other horse-furniture. The same word is used a fourth time by Eustathius, who wrote in the twelfth century, in his commentary on Homer, Χαλκὸν δὲ νῦν λέγει τὰ σελιναῖα ὑπὸ τοῖς ποσὶ τῶν ἵππων, οἷς διακόπτονται εἰς πλέον τὰ πατούμενα. See Iliad. lib. xi. 152. Though I do not believe that Homer had the least idea of horse-shoes, I am fully convinced that Eustathius alludes to them by that word. This commentator has explained very properly various passages of the like kind in Homer; but he seems here, as was the case sometimes with his poet himself, to have been asleep or slumbering.

When one considers that the σελιναῖα, or σεληναῖα, belonged to horse-furniture; that they were made of iron; that, as Eustathius says, they were placed under the hoofs of the horses; that the word seems to show its derivation from the moon-like form of shoes, such as those used at present; and lastly, that nails were necessary to these σελιναῖα; I think we may venture to conclude, without any fear of erring, that this word was employed to signify horse-shoes of the same kind as ours, and that they were known, if not earlier, at least in the ninth century.

1412

This life of Matilda may be found in Leibnitii Scriptores Brunsvicenses, vol. i. p. 629; but the fullest and most correct edition is in Muratori Rerum Italicarum Scriptores. Mediolani 1724, fol. vol. v. p. 353.

1413

Histoire de France, vol. i. p. 566. The author here speaks of the cavalry of Louis le Débonnaire.

1414

Dugd. Bar. i. 58. ex Chron. Bromtoni, p. 974, 975, Blount’s Tenures, p. 50.

1415

Brook’s Discovery of Errors in the Catalogue of the Nobility, p. 198.

1416

Beckmann in Beschreibung der Mark Brandenburg, Berlin, 1751, 2 vols. fol. i. p. 401, mentions an old shoe found in a grave, the holdfasts of which did not project downwards but upwards. Arnkul in his Heidnischen Alterthümern speaks also of a horse-shoe found near Kiel.

1417

Those who are desirous of particular information respecting everything that concerns the floating of wood may read Bergius, Polizey- und Camera-magazin, vol. iii. p. 156; Krunitz, Encylopedie, vol. xiv. p. 286; and the Forstmagazin, vol. viii. p. 1. To form an idea of the many laborious, expensive, and ingenious establishments and undertakings which are often necessary in this business, one may peruse Mémoire sur les Travaux qui ont Rapport à l’Exploitation de la Mâture dans les Pyrénées. Par M. Leroy. Londres et Paris, 1776, 4to. So early as the time of cardinal Richelieu the French began to bring from the Pyrenees timber for masts to their navy; but as the expense was very great, the attempt was abandoned, till it was resumed in the year 1758 by a private company, who entered into a contract with the minister for supplying the dock-yards with masts. After 1765 government took that business into their own hands; but it was attended with very great difficulties.

1418

Plinius, lib. vi. cap. 56. – Strabo, lib. xvi. where he calls these rafts σχεδίαι. – Festus, p. 432. – Scheffer, De Militia Navali Veterum, lib. i. cap. 3. – Pitisci Lexicon Antiq. Rom. art. Rates.

1419

“My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon unto the sea: and I will convey them by sea in floats unto the place that thou shalt appoint me.” – 1 Kings, chap. v. ver. 9. “And we will cut wood out of Lebanon, as much as thou shalt need: and we will bring it to thee in floats by sea to Joppa; and thou shalt carry it up to Jerusalem.” – 2 Chronicles, chap. ii. v. 16. Pocock thinks that the wood was cut down near Tyre. The accounts given by travellers of Mount Lebanon, and the small remains of the ancient forests of cedar, have been collected by Busching in his Geography.

The following is the account given of these cedars by the abbé Binos, who visited them in the year 1778. “Here,” says he, “I first discovered the celebrated cedars, which grow in an oval plain, about an Italian mile in circumference. The largest stand at a considerable distance from each other, as if afraid that their branches might be entangled, or to afford room for their tender shoots to spring up, and to elevate themselves also in the course of time. These trees raise their proud summits to the height of sixty, eighty, and a hundred feet. Three or four, when young, grow up sometimes together, and form at length, by uniting their sap, a tree of a monstrous thickness. The trunk then assumes generally a square form. The thickest which I saw might be about thirty feet round; and this size was occasioned by several having been united when young. Six others, which were entirely insulated, and free from shoots, were much taller, and seemed to have been indebted for their height to the undivided effects of their sap.” These cedars, formerly so numerous, are now almost entirely destroyed. In the year 1575, Rauwolff found twenty-four that stood round about in a circle, and two others, the branches whereof are quite decayed with age; Bellon, in 1550, counted twenty-eight old trees; Fremenet, in 1630, counted twenty-two; La Roque, in 1688, twenty; Maundrell, in 1696, sixteen; Dr. Pococke, in 1738, fifteen; and Schulze, in 1755, counted twenty, besides some young ones; Burckhardt, in 1810, eleven or twelve; Dr. Richardson, in 1818, eight; Mr. Robinson, in 1830, seven; Lord Lindsay, in 1836, seven. Mr. Buckingham, in 1816, differs greatly from the other authorities, computing the whole number of trees at two hundred, of which he describes twenty as being very large. – Trans.

1420

Antiquit. lib. viii. These letters have been printed by Fabricius in Codex Pseudepigraphus Veteris Testamenti, i. p. 1026.

1421

Olymp. v. 29. Gesner, in explaining Pindar, translated φάος or φῶς by the word help, which Hebraism occurs in the New Testament, and also in Homer. The stream therefore assisted the inhabitants while under a great inconvenience.

1422

Chanaan, i. 29, p. 605.

1423

Herodot. lib. iii.

1424

See Pindar, ed. Welsted, 1697, fol. p. 53 and 56, a, 37.

1425

Vitruv. lib. ii. 9, p. 77.

1426

Plin. lib. xvi. cap. 39, p. 33 and 34.

1427

Codex Theodos. lib. xiii. tit. 5, 10. Lex xiii. p. 78. Compare Symmachi Epist. lib. x. ep. 58. As far as I know, such ordinances occur also in the Code of Justinian.

1428

See Sammlung vermischter Nachrichten zur Sächsischen Geschichte, by G. J. Grundig and J. F. Klotzsch, vol. vi. 221.

1429

Pertuchii Chronic. Portense, p. 54.

1430

Rudolphi Gotha Diplomatica, pars i. p. 279.

1431

See the Forest Laws in Fritschii Corp. Juris Ven. Forest.

1432

Wood was conveyed in boats upon the Yonne so early as the year 1527. See Coquille in Histoire du Nivernois.

1433

Traité de la Police, par De la Mare, iii. p. 839. – Savary, Dictionnaire de Commerce, art. Bois flotté and Train.

1434

De Jure Maritimo, p. i. c. 10. n. 100.

1435