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turally to inquire into the means the ancients ufed to make their dyes folid and lafting. We fee that they ufed a good deal of falt in thefe forts of operations, and they must `really do it; but all forts of falt except the crystal of tartar or tartar of vitriol, will diffolve in water, or calcine in the fun. We fee alfo that the ancients on many occafions made their dyes with the blood of animals z. We know that all dyes into which they put the blood of animals, without mixing mineral acids, evaporate, change, and become black with time. It is only by the help of chymistry that we can procure fuch fpecies of falts as I have now described, and the acid minerals, so necessary in dying: But chymical preparations were unknown to the ancients : we are therefore led to believe that they could only have very bad dyes.

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Yet we never find the ancients complain that the colour of their stuffs was fubject to alter or change. They must then have made up for thefe chymical operations by particular methods. They must have had fome preparations, fome fecrets we are ignorant of. Plutarch tells us in the life of Alexander, that the conqueror found among the treafures of the Kings of Perfia, a prodigious quantity of purple ftuffs, which for one hundred and eighty years which they had been kept, preferved all their luftre and all their primitive freshness, because, says he, they had been prepared with honey . A kind of preparation abfolutely un

known to us.

We find in Herodotus, that certain people on the borders of the Cafpian fea, imprinted on their ftuffs defigns either of animals, or flowers, whofe colour never changed, and lafted as long even as the wool of which their cloaths were made. They used for this business the leaves of certain trees which they bruifed and diluted in water. We know that the favages of Chili make with certain plants, dyes.

See Plin. 1.9. fect: 62.; Plut. t. 2. p. 433. B.

y Acad. des fcien. ann. 1740. H. p. 65. ann. 1741. mem. p. 42. 70. & 71. 2 See P. Calmet, t. 2. p. 348.

a Vitruv.1. 7. c. 13. & Lucret. l. 6. v. 1072. &c.

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Arts

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which will bear washing with soap many times without lofing their colour. Lastly, Pliny defcribes the way which the Egyptians made painted linen, which deferves some attention. They began, fays he, by laying on certain drugs on white linen, and then put it into the vat full of boiling dye. After having left it there fome time, they drew it out painted of divers colours. Pliny obferves that they had' only one fort of liquor in the vat. The different colours painted on the cloth, could not be produced but by diverse preparations laid upon it. These colours were fo adhesive, that it was not poffible to change them, whatever washings they afterwards gave to the cloth. Pliny even adds, that these forts of stuffs were strengthened by it, and were better for being dyed. We may conclude from all these facts, that, in all probability, the ancients had preparations by which they fupplied the fuccours we draw from chymistry, to fix the colour of our ftuffs. And if the particulars of thefe operations are at prefent unknown, it is because new discoveries infinitely more fure and more commodious have made these ancient methods infenfibly difapear. I have already made this obfervation f.

There should remain one queftion more to propose with relation to a red colour different from purple, which is fo often mentioned in Exodus . Opinions are divided as well as to the fenfe of the Hebrew word *, as on that of coccus by which the Septuagint and the Vulgate have translated it. Some think it is crimson, others, that it is fcarlet. By adopting the tranflation of the Septuagint and the Vulgate, which I believe right, it is easy to fhew that the colour called coccus by the Greeks and Romans, is fcarlet, very different from crimson. The examination of the materials proper for one and the other colour, ought to decide the question..

Voyage de Frezier, p. 72.

L. 35. fect. 42. p. 709. All this preparation is defcribed by Pliny in a very embarraffed and obfcure manner, according to the custom of this author: I have endeavoured to make it as clear as poffible, but I would not warrant the exactness, and lefs ftill the reality of it.

f B. 2. c. 2. art. 1. 8 C. 25. v. 4.

VOL. II.

.Tolaat-Scheii תולעת שני *

Crimfon,

Crimfon, properly fo called, is of a deep red, and is made with cochineal, an ingredient abfolutely unknown to antiquity. Scarlet is of a lively and bright red. To make this dye, they use a fort of little reddish grains which they gather from a fort of French or holm oak, a dwarf-tree common in Palestine, in the ifle of Crete, and in many other countries. They find on the leaves and on the bark of this fhrub, little nuts or bladders about the fize of a juniper-berry. Thefe excrefcences are occafioned by the eating of little worms. The Arabians have given them the name of kermes; we call them the fcarlet grain, or vermilion, because they use it to make the most beautiful and lively red. Let us apply these principles to the question in hand.

It is certain, that the ancients had a red colour much efteemed, called coccus, which they diftinguished from purple. The coccus differed from the purple, as well by its preparation, as by its fhade and the effect of the colour. Purple, as we have feen, was of a deep red approaching to coagulated blood, and was dyed with the liquor of certain fhell-fifhes. The coccus, on the contrary, was of a gay red, lively, bright, approaching to the colour of fire ». This dye was made with a fort of little grains which they ga thered on the holm oak ". The ancients even called these grains, which at prefent we call Scarlet grain, fruits of the bolm oak . Neither were they ignorant, that these pretended fruits inclosed worms P. After this expofition, it clear

h Voyage de la Terre-Sainte du P. Roger, recollet. 1. 1. c. 2.; Voyage de Monconys, part 1. p. 179.; Bellon, obfervat. I. 1. c. 17. 1. 2. c. 88.; Acad. des fcien. ann. 1714. mem. p. 435. ann. 1741. mem. p. 50.

i Acad. des fcien. an. 1714. Mem. p. 13.

* Ibid.

1 Exod. c. 25 V. 4.; Plin. 1. 9. fect. 65. p. 528.; Quintil. inftit. orat. 1. 1. c. 2. At Rome scarlet was allowed to every body, but the purple was reserved for the higheft dignities.

Plin. 1. 9. fe&. 65. p. 528.1. 21. fect. 22. p. 240..

Theophraft. hiftor. plant. 1. 3. c. 16.; Plin. l. 16. fect. 12. p. 6.; Diofcorid. 1. 4. c. 48.; Pauf. 1. 10. c. 36.

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Ipivy xapwór. Plut. in Thef. p. 7.; Plin. 1. 16. fect. 12. p. 6. calls these little grains cufculia, from the Greek coxxew, which fignifies to cat little excrefcences; because in effect they cut and scrape thefe small grains off the bark and the leaves of the holm oak.

Coccum ilicis celerrime in vermiculum fe mutans fays Pliny, 1. 24 fect. 4. 327,

ly

ly appears, that the colour named coccus by the ancients, was our fcarlet *. The Septuagint and Vulgate having tranflated by that word, the Hebrew term ufed by Mofes to design a red colour, other than purple, it follows, that they believed he meant the fcarlet. But independently of the anthority and confideration which these interpreters deserve, the etymology of the terms of the original text proves the truth of the fentiment which I propose. We see there plainly intended a dye made with worms ¶.

But I do not think, that this colour was as brilliant as that which we now call fine fcarlet. I even doubt whether the ancients could approach towards it. Let us not forget, that, before chymical discoveries, the art of dying must have been very imperfect. Without the preparations which chymiftry affords, we could not dye ftuffs fine fcarlet. This is the most bright and beautiful colour in dying; but one of the most difficult to bring to its point of perfection .

ARTICLE II.

Of the variety and richness of fluffs.

WE have seen in the first part of this work, that the invention of embroidering ftuffs, and varying the tiffue with different colours, was very ancient. It was not poffible, for want of monuments at that time, to enter into any detail of the progress of these two arts. The ages we are now treating of, give us a better opportunity of judging. We here fee great magnificence and great tafte in drefs. To read fome chapters in Exodus, is fufficient to convince us of

This is alfo the opinion of Mathiolus on Diofcorides.

Exod. c. 39. v. 1. & 28. See le P. Calmet, t. 2. p. 350. & 351.

At prefent they make very little ufe of coccus or kermes in dying. The cochineal, far fuperior to all drugs heretofore used to dye red, has made them leave it off. Acad. des feien. ann. 1741. mem. p. 69.

See Senac, nouveau cours de Chymie, pref. p. 5.

Pliny gives us to understand, that the colour of stuffs formerly dyed fearlet was not fufficiently durable nor adhesive, 1. 22. fect. 3. p. 266. Sec alfo the remarks of P. Hardouin, note 5.

Acad des fcien. ann. 1741 mem. p. 6.

0 2

this.

this. What moft deferves our attention, is the manner they could then employ the colours in the making of ftuffs. It is certain, that they were not one and the fame colour, Scripture speaks of works where there were many colours . But in what way did they diftribute them? were these stuffs ftriped or fhaded? The firft of thefe operations does not require much art; the other requires much more fkill and ability. Yet it is very probable, that they then knew the fecret of fhading ftuffs, Mofes fpeaks of works in embroidery with a tiffue of different colours with an agreeable variety", The expreffion agreeable variety, which he uses to distinguish these forts of ftuffs, leads us to think, that the colours were not uniform, but that they had observed a gradation. But what completes the confirmation of this fentiment, is the force of the Hebrew word used to design embroidered stuffs. To a tittle, this word fignifies works of embroidered feathers". Yet it does not appear, that the Hebrews then made use of the feathers of birds. It is not mentioned in the enumeration of the things used for the ornament of the tabernacle, and for the dreffes of the high prieft. The relation between the feathers of birds and the effect of embrodieries, expressed by the term of the original text, appears to me to flew an imitation of the manner in which the colours are graduated in the plumage of birds, and confequently of fhaded ftuffs. It was not only among the Hebrews, that the art of working embroidery was then in ufe. This art was equally known to many other people of Afia. Homer defcribing the occupations of Helen at Troy, fays, that this princefs worked a wonderful piece of embroidery. She there reprefented the bloody fights fought between the Greeks and the Trojans 2. He fpeaks alfo of another work of the fame kind, to which Andromache applied herself when the heard of the death of Hector. The fubject of it was many forts of flowers. Before the war of Troy, the women of Sidon were famous

Exod. c. 26. v. 1. & 31. c. 39. v. 2.

*, Rakamah, v. 36.

"Exod c. 26. v. 1. & 31.

Ezekiel, c. 17. v. 3. speaking of the wings of the great eagle, ufes the word Rakamah.

1

2 Iliad. 1. 3. V. 125.

a Ibid. 1. 22. v. 442. c.

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