[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.
[81] [Dr. Ure copies this information in his Dictionary, but gives it
as the return of an official report for the year 1831!]
[82] This information is to be found in Hellot’s Art of Dyeing, into
which it has been copied, as appears by the Dictionnaire d’Histoire
Naturelle, par Valmont de Bomare, from an account written by M.
Porlier, who was consul at Teneriffe in 1731.
[83] As the archil grows in the African islands, and on the coast
of Africa, Glass supposes that the Getulian purple of the ancients
was dyed with it; but this opinion is improbable, for Horace praises
“Gætula _murice_ tinctas vestes.”
[84] Lettres sur l’Histoire Naturelle de l’Isle d’Elbe, par Koestlin.
Vienne, 1780, 8vo, p. 100.
[85] Lib. xxvii. c. 9.
[86] Nova Plantarum Genera. Flor. 1729.
[87] Some translate this word _lacca musica_, _musiva_.
[88] [According to Dr. Ure, the Dutch first reduce the lichen to a fine
powder by means of a mill, then mix a certain proportion of potash with
it. The mixture is watered with urine and allowed to undergo a species
of fermentation. When this has arrived at a certain degree, carbonate
of lime in powder is added to give consistence and weight to the paste,
which is afterwards reduced into small parallelopipeds, which are
carefully dried.]
[89] This plant grows in the neighbourhood of Montpelier, and above
all, in the flats of Languedoc. In harvest, the time when it is
collected, the peasants assemble from the distance of fifteen or twenty
leagues around, and each gathers on his own account. It is bruised in
a mill, and the juice must be immediately used; some mix with it a
thirtieth part of urine. It is poured over pieces of canvas, which they
take care to provide, and which they rub between their hands. These
rags are dried in the sun, and then exposed, above a stone stove, to
the vapour of urine mixed with quick-lime or alum. After they have
imbibed the juice of the plant, the same operations are repeated till
the pieces of cloth appear of a deep blue colour. They are called in
commerce _tournesol en drapeaux_. Large quantities of them are bought
up by the Dutch, who make use of them to colour wines and the rinds of
their cheese.--TRANS.
[90] [Lacmus or litmus is now prepared from _Lecanora tartarea_, the
famous _Cudbear_, so called after a Mr. Cuthbert, who first brought
it into use. It is imported largely from Norway, where it grows
more abundantly than with us; yet in the Highland districts many an
industrious peasant gets a living by scraping off this lichen with an
iron hoop, and sending it to the Glasgow market.]
[91] Linn. Mantissa Plantarum, i. p. 132.
[92] See Wallis’s Natural History and Antiquities of Northumberland,
1769, 2 vols. 4to, i. p. 279.