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

51

A perit is a small weight less than a grain. – Trans.

52

[How well the author’s remarks apply to the recent mania in railway scrip!]

53

In the year 1769, the dearest kinds in England were Don Quevedo and Valentinier; the former cost 2l. 2s. and the latter 2l. 12s. 6d. See Weston’s Botanicus Universalis, part 2. In the German catalogues none of the prices are so high. The name Semper Augustus is not once to be found in new catalogues. [They still remain flowers of considerable value among florists; for, according to Mr. Hogg, a moderate collection of choice bulbs cannot now be purchased for a sum much less than 1000l., at the usual prices. – See Chambers’ Journal, March 15, 1845.]

54

Blainville’s Travels.

55

Introd. in Hist. Lit. iii. 3, p. 92.

56

That he might relax and refresh his mind, worn out by study, he amused himself with the cultivation of his garden and of flowers, and particularly of tulips, the roots of which he was at great pains to procure from all parts of the world, by means of Dodonæus, Clusius, and Boisotus, men singularly well-skilled in horticulture, and by others of his friends. Here, at a distance from civil tumult, with a cheerful countenance and placid eye, he sauntered through his plants and flowers, contemplating sometimes one declining, sometimes another springing up, and forgetting all his cares amidst the pleasure which these objects afforded him. See the Life of Lipsius, prefixed to the edition of his works printed at Antwerp in 1637. This is confirmed by what Lipsius says himself in his book De Constantia, ii. 2, 3, in praise of gardening.

57

He rented a house near to the Vatican, with a garden, in which he had planted the choicest flowers, and those chiefly which are not propagated from seeds or roots, but from bulbs. These flowers were not known about thirty years before, nor had they been ever seen at Rome, but lay neglected in the Alps. – Of these flowers, which have no smell, but are esteemed only on account of their colours, Barclay was remarkably fond, and purchased their bulbs at a great price. Erythræi Pinacotheca. Lips. 1712, 8vo, iii. 17, p. 623. See also Freheri Theatrum, p. 1515.

58

Gesneri Historiæ Animalium, liber tertius. Tiguri, 1555, fol. p. 234.

59

Uccelliera, overo Discorso della natura di diversi Uccelli. Roma, 1622, 4to.

60

Gesneri redivivi, aucti et emendati, tomus ii. Franc. 1669, fol. p. 62. More information respecting hybrids may be found in Brisson, Ornithologie, t. iii. p. 187; and Frisch, Vorstellung der Vögel in Teutschland, the twelfth plate of which contains several good figures.

61

Coleri Œconomia ruralis et domestica. Franc. 1680, folio.

62

Barrington’s paper in the Phil. Trans. vol. lxiii. p. 249.

63

Phalaris Canariensis. The best figure and description of it are to be found in Schreber’s Beschreibung der Gräser, ii. p. 83, tab. x. 2.

64

Lib. iii. c. 159, and lib. xxvii. c. 12.

65

Dictionnaire de Commerce, t. v. 1765, fol. p. 1149.

66

In the Dictionary of the Academy della Crusca the word oricello is thus explained: Tintura colla quale si tingono i panni, che si fa con orina d’uomo, e con altri ingredienti.

67

Historia Muscorum, Ox. 1741, 4to, p. 120.

68

Hist. Plant. iv. c. 7.

69

Lib. iv. c. 95.

70

Lib. xxvi. c. 10; xxxii. c. 6.

71

Hardouin quotes Aristot. Hist. Animal. vi. c. 9. But that naturalist speaks of a sea-weed which was cast on shore by the Hellespont. A dye or paint was made of it, and the people in the neighbourhood imagined that the purple of this sea-weed, which served as food to certain shell-fish, communicated to them their beautiful dye. A proof that sea-weeds (fuci) can communicate a red colour may be found in the Transactions of the Swedish Academy, iv. p. 29.

72

Voyage du Levant. Amsterd. 1718, 4to, i. p. 89.

73

“Præterea Amorgina, optima quidem in Amorgo fiunt, sed et hæc e lino esse asserunt. Tunica autem Amorgina etiam amorgis nuncupatur.” – Onomasticon, vii. c. 16.

74

Histor. Nat. lib. xxvii. c. 11.

75

Pinax Plant. p. 365. Hist. Plant. iii. 2. p. 796.

76

Other accounts say that he was an Englishman; but the name Frederigo confirms his German extraction.

77

Giornale de’ Letterati d’ Italia, t. xxxiii. parte i. p. 231.

78

These documents from the Florentine records may be found in Dominici Mariæ Manni de Florentinis Inventis Commentarium. Ferrariæ, 1731, p. 37, from which I have extracted the following: – “One of this family resided formerly a long time in the Levant, where he carried on trade, according to the custom of the Florentine nation. Being one day in the fields, and happening to make water on a plant, of which there was great abundance, he observed that it immediately became extraordinarily red. Like a prudent man, therefore, he resolved to make use of this secret of nature, which till that time had lain hid; and having made several experiments on that herb, and finding it proper to dye cloth, he sent some of it to Florence, where, being mixed with human urine and other things, it has always been employed to dye cloth purple. This plant, which is called respo, is in Spain named orciglia, and by botanists commonly corallina. The mixture made with it is called oricello, and has been of great utility and advantage to the woollen manufacture, which is carried on to greater extent in Florence than in any other city. From this circumstance the individuals of that family, by being the inventors of oricello, have been called Oricellai, and have been beloved by the people for having procured to them this particular benefit. Thus has written John di Paolo Rucellai (Manni says that this learned and opulent man wrote in the year 1451); and the same account is still given by dyers in our city, who relate and affirm that their ancestors have for a century exercised the art of dyeing, and that they know the above from tradition.”

This is confirmed by another passage: – “One of this family, on account of the trade carried on faithfully and honestly by the Florentines, travelled to the Levant, and brought thence to Florence the art, or rather secret, of dyeing in oricello.”

79

In the genealogical history of the noble families of Tuscany and Umbria, written by P. D. Eugenio Gamurrini, and published at Florence 1668–1673, 3 vols. in folio, is the following account, vol. i. p. 274, of the origin of this family: – “This family acquired their name from a secret brought by one of them from the Levant, which was that of dyeing in oricello, never before used in this country. On that account they were afterwards called Oricellari, as appears from several records among the archives of Florence, and then by corruption Rucellari and Rucellai. Of their origin many speak, and all agree that they came into Tuscany from Britain.”

80

The History of the Discovery and Conquest of the Canary Islands, by George Glass. London, 1764, 4to.

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