[380] Hesiod, Opera et Dies, 421.--It appears that both the mortar and
pestle were then made of wood, and that the former was three feet in
height; but, to speak the truth, Hesiod does not expressly say that
this mortar was for the purpose of pounding corn. The mortar was called
ὕπερος, pila; the pestle ὕπερος, or ὕπερον, pistillus or pistillum;
to pound, μάσσειν, pinsere, which word, as well as _pinsor_, was
afterwards retained when mills came to be used.--Plin. lib. xviii. c. 3.
[381] Plin. xviii. 10. ii. p. 111. This passage Gesner has endeavoured
to explain, in his Index to the Scriptores Rei Rusticæ, p. 59, to which
he gives the too-dignified title of Lexicon Rusticum.
[382] Gellius, iii. c. 3.
[383] Deuteronomy, ch. xxiv. v. 6.
[384] When Moses threatened Pharaoh with the destruction of the
first-born in the land of Egypt, he said, “All the first-born shall
die, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth on the throne,
even unto the first-born of the maid-servant that is behind the
mill.”--Genesis, ch. xi. v. 5. See Homeri Odyss. vii. 103, and xx. 105.
[385] Apuleii Metamorph. lib. ix.
[386] The oldest cattle-mills have, in my opinion, resembled the
oil-mills represented in plate 25th of Sonnerat, Voyages aux Indes,
&c., i. Zurich, 1783, 4to. To the pestle of a mortar made fast to a
stake driven into the earth, is affixed a shaft to which two oxen are
yoked. The oxen are driven by a man, and another stands at the mortar
to push the seed under the pestle. Sonnerat says, that with an Indian
hand-mill two men can grind no more than sixty pounds of meal in a day;
while one of our mills, under the direction of one man, can grind more
than a thousand.
[387] Voyage du Lévant, 4to, p. 155.
[388] A haycock was called _meta fœni_. Colum. ii. 19. Plin. xxvii. 28.
[389] Niebuhr’s Déscription de l’Arabie. A figure of both stones is
represented in the first plate, fig. H.
[390] Memorie di varia erudizione della Societa Colombaria Fiorentina.
Livorno, 1752, 4to, vol. ii. p. 207.
[391] No. 282, p. 1285, and in the abridgement by Jones, 1700-20, vol.
ii. p. 38.
[392] Joh. Heringii Tractatus de Molendinis eorumque jure. Franc. 1663,
4to. A very confused book, which requires a very patient reader. F. L.
Gœtzius De Pistrinis Veterum. Cygneæ 1730, 8vo. Extracted chiefly from
the former, equally confused, and filled with quotations from authors
who afford very little insight into the history or knowledge of mills.
Traité de la Police, par De la Mare.--G. H. Ayrer, De Molarum Initiis;
et Prolusio de Molarum Progressibus, Gottin. 1772.--C. L. Hoheiselii
Diss. de Molis Manualibus Veterum. Gedani 1728.--Pancirollus, edit.
Salmuth. ii. p. 294.--Histoire de la vie privée des Francois, par Le
Grand d’Aussy. Paris, 1782, i. p. 33.--See Fabricii Bibliographia
Antiq. Hamburgi, 1760, p. 1002.
[393] Plin. lib. vii. c. 56.
[394] Stephan. De Urbibus, v. μυλαντία.
[395] Pausanias, iii. c. 20. edit. Kuhnii, p. 260.
[396] Strabo, lib. xii. edit. Almelov. p. 834. In the Greek stands the
words ὑδραλέτης, perhaps an ἅπαξ λεγόμενον, which the scholiasts have
explained by a water-mill. In many of the later translations of Strabo
that word is wanting.
[397] This Pomponius Sabinus, author of a Commentary on the works of
Virgil, is called also Julius Pomponius Lætus, though in a letter he
denies that he is the author. He died in 1496. A good account of him
may be found in Fabricii Biblioth. Med. et Infimæ Latinitatis, iv. p.
594. There are several editions of his Commentary, the first printed at
Basil, 1544. The one I have before me is contained in Vergilii Opera,
cum Variorum Commentariis, studio L. Lucii. Basiliæ (1613), fol. Where
the poet gives an ingenious description of a hand-mill, Pomponius adds,
“Usus molarum ad manum in Cappadocia inventus; inde inventus usus earum
ad ventum et ad equos. Paulo ante Augustum molæ aquis actæ Romæ in
Tiberi primum factæ, tempore Græcorum, cum fornices diruissent.”
[398] This Greek epigram was first made known by Salmasius, in his
Annotations on the Life of Heliogabalus by Lanipridius. See Historiæ
Augustæ Scriptores; ed. C. Salmasius, Par. 1620, fol. p. 193. It is to
be found also in Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions, ii. p. 315,
and in Analecta Veterum Græcorum, edit. Brunk. ii. p. 119, epig. 39.
[399] Pallad. in Script. De Re Rustica, lib. i. 42, edit. Gesn.
[400] Lucret. v. 517. Compare Salmas. ad Solin. p. 416.
[401] Hist. Aug. Scr. Lamprid. in Vita Heliogabali.
[402] Among the doubtful passages is one of Pliny, lib. xviii. c. 10.
“Major pars Italiæ ruido utitur pilo; rotis etiam, quas aqua verset
obiter, et molat.” So reads Hardouin: but the French translator of
Pliny divides these words otherwise, and reads thus: “Major pars Italiæ
ruido utitur pilo, rotis etiam quas aqua verset; obiter et molit;”
which he translates as follows; “Dans la majeure partie de l’Italie, on
se sert d’un pilon raboteux, ou de roues que l’eau fait tourner; et par
fois aussi on y emploie la meule.” This explanation is in my opinion
very proper; Pliny is not speaking here of the labour of grinding corn,
but that of freeing it from the husks, or of converting it into grits.
For this purpose a mortar was used, the pestle of which could be so
managed that the grain remained whole; but water-wheels were sometimes
employed also. I agree with Le Prince (Journal des Sçavans, 1779,
Septem.), who thinks that Pliny here certainly speaks of a water-mill.
[403] Sueton. Vita Calig. cap. 39.
[404] Petr. Victor. De Regionibus urbis Romæ.
[405] Digestorum lib. xxxiii. tit. 7, 18, Cum de lanienis.
[406] Cod. Theodos. lib. ix. tit. 40, 3, or l. 3, Quicunque. C. Th. de
pœnis.
[407] Cod. Theodos. lib. xiv. tit. 3, 7, or l. 7. Post quinquennii, C.
Th. de pistoribus. We are told in 1778 that there are no other mills in
Sardinia than such as are driven by asses. See Fran. Cetti, Quadrupedi
di Sardegna. Sessati, 1778, 8vo.
[408] Cod. Theodos. lib. xiv. tit. 15, 4; and Cod. Justin, lib. xi.
tit. 42, 10. Many things relating to the same subject may be found in
Cassiodorus.
[409] Procopius, Gothicorum lib. i. c. 9. Fabretti Diss. de aquis et
aquæductibus vet. Romæ, p. 176. Grævii Thesaur. Antiq. Rom. iv. p. 1677.
[410] The account of Procopius, in the first book of the War of the
Goths, deserves to be here given at length:--“When these aqueducts were
cut off by the enemy, as the mills were stopped for want of water,
and as cattle could not be found to drive them, the Romans, closely
besieged, were deprived of every kind of food (for with the utmost
care they could scarcely find provender for their horses). Belisarius
however being a man of great ingenuity devised a remedy for this
distress. Below the bridge which reaches to the walls of Janiculum, he
extended ropes well-fastened, and stretched across the river from both
banks. To these he affixed two boats of equal size, at the distance of
two feet from each other, where the current flowed with the greatest
velocity under the arch of the bridge, and placing large mill-stones in
one of the boats, suspended in the middle space a machine by which they
were turned. He constructed at certain intervals on the river, other
machines of the like kind, which being put in motion by the force of
the water that ran below them, drove as many mills as were necessary to
grind provisions for the city,” &c.
[411] “Si quis ingenuus annonam in molino furaverit.... Si quis sclusam
de farinario alieno ruperit.... Si quis ferramentum de molino alieno
furaverit....”--Leges Francorum Salicæ, edit. Eccardi, Francof. et
Lipsiæ 1720, fol. p. 51. _Sclusa_ is translated _sluice_, and there is
no doubt that the French word _escluse_ is derived from it. All these
words come from _schliessen_ to shut up, or the Low Saxon _schluten_:
but by that word in these laws we can hardly understand those expensive
works which we at present call sluices, but probably wickets and what
else belonged to the dam. Lex Wisigothorum, lib. viii. tit. 4, 30, may
serve further to illustrate this subject: “De confringentibus molina et
conclusiones aquarum. Si quis molina violenter effregerit, quod fregit
intra triginta dies reparare cogatur.--Eadem et de stagnis, quæ sunt
circa molina conclusiones aquarum, præcipimus custodire.” The _sclusæ_
are here called _conclusiones aquarum_, to which belong also the mounds
or dykes. See Corpus Juris Germanici Antiqui, ed. Georgisch. Halæ
1738, 4to, p. 2097. Gregory of Tours calls them _exclusas_. But what is
_ferramentum_? The iron-work of our mills cannot be so easily stolen as
to render it necessary to secure them by particular laws.
[412] Auson. Mosella, v. 362. Fortunati Carmina, Moguntiæ 1617, 4to, p.
83.
[413] Gregorii Turonensis Opera, Paris, 1699, fol. Hist. lib. iii. 19,
p. 126. Ibid. Vita Patrum, 18, p. 1242.
[414] Gul. Britonis Philippidos libri xii. lib. vi. v. 220.
[415] Chronicon Hierosolymitanum, edit. a Reineccio. Helms. 1584, 4to,
lib. i. c. 10.
[416] See Carpentieri Gloss. Nov. ad Scriptores medii, ævi, (Supp. ad
Ducang.) Paris, 1766, fol. vol. i. p. 266. In a chronicle written in
the year 1290, a floating-mill is called _molendinum navale_, also
_navencum_; and in another chronicle of 1301, _molendinum pendens_.
[417] Damiani Opera, ed. Cajetani. Paris, 1743, fol. i. p. 105, lib.
vi. epist. 23.
[418] Dell’ Origine di alcune Arti Principali Appresso i Veneziani.
Ven. 1758, 4to, p. 71.
[419] Dialog. i. 2.
[420] Histor. Francorum, lib. ix. 38, p. 462.
[421] See Pomponius Sabinus, _ut supra_.
[422] Lib. ix. c. 9; x. c. 1, 13.
[423] Natur. Quæst. lib. v. c. 18.
[424] Chrysost. in Psalm. cxxxiv. p. 362.
[425] “At the same period (718) one named Halek the son of Uladi the
weak, built close to the city an ingenious mill which was driven by
water. It was visited by many Bohemians, in whom it excited much
wonder, and who taking it as a model, built others of the like kind
here and there on the rivers; for before that time all the Bohemian
mills were wind-mills, erected on mountains.”--Wenceslai Hagecii
Chronic. Bohem. translated into German by John Sandel. Nuremberg, 1697,
fol. p. 13.
[426] See De la Mare, Traité de la Police, &c. _ut supra_.--Déscription
du Duché de Bourgogne. Dijon, 1775, 8vo, i. p. 163.--Dictionnaire des
Origines, par d’Origny, v. p. 184. The last work has an attracting
title, but it is the worst of its kind, written without correctness or
judgement, and without giving authorities.
[427] There are no wind-mills at Ispahan nor in any part of Persia. The
mills are all driven by water, by the hand, or by cattle. Voyages de
Chardin. Rouen, 1723, 8vo, viii. p. 221.--The Arabs have no wind-mills;
these are used in the East only in places where no streams are to be
found; and in most parts the people make use of hand-mills. Those
which I saw on Mount Lebanon and Mount Carmel had a great resemblance
to those which are found in many parts of Italy. They are exceedingly
simple and cost very little. The mill-stone and the wheel are fastened
to the same axis. The wheel, if it can be so called, consists of eight
hollow boards shaped like a shovel, placed across the axis. When the
water falls with violence upon these boards it turns them round and
puts in motion the mill-stone over which the corn is poured.--Darvieux,
Reisen, Part iii. Copenh. 1754, 8vo. I did not see either water- or
wind-mills in all Arabia. I however found an oil-press at Tehama, which
was driven by oxen; and thence suppose that the Arabs have corn-mills
of the like kind.--Niebuhr, p. 217.
[428] Mabillon, Annales Ord. Benedicti. Paris, 1713, fol. p. 474.
[429] Dugdale, Mon. i. p. 816.--The letter of donation, which appears
also to be of the twelfth century, may be found in the same collection,
ii. p. 459. In it occurs the expression _molendinum ventriticum_. In a
charter also in vol. iii. p. 107, we read of _molendinum ventorium_.
See Dugdale’s Monasticon, ed. nov. vol. v. p. 431-442.
[430] Decretal Greg. lib. iii. tit. 30. c. 23.
[431] Zanetti, _ut supra_.
[432] Lehmann’s Chronica der Stadt Speyer. Frankf. 1662, 4to, p.
847. “Sent to the Netherlands for a miller who could grind with the
wind-mill.”
[433] Descriptions and figures of both kinds may be found in Leupold’s
Theatrum Machinarum Generale. Leipzig, 1724, fol. p. 101, tab. 41, 42,
43.
[434] De Rerum Varietate, lib. i. cap. 10.
[435] This account I found in De Koophandel van Amsterdam, door Le
Long. Amst. 1727, 2 vol. 8vo, ii. p. 584. “The moveable top for turning
the mill round to every wind was first found out in the middle of the
sixteenth century by a Fleming.” We read there that this is remarked by
John Adrian Leegwater; of whom I know nothing more than what is related
of him in the above work, that he was celebrated on account of various
inventions, and died in 1650, in the 75th year of his age.
[436] See Beschryving der Stadt Delft, Delft, 1729, folio 625.
[437] Plin. lib. xviii. cap. 11.
[438] At Midsummer 1502, machinery for bolting in mills was first
introduced and employed at Zwikau; Nicholas Boller, who gave rise to
this improvement, being then sworn master of the bakers’ company. It
may be thence easily seen, that coarse and not bolted flour, such as is
still used in many places, and as was used through necessity at Zwikau
in 1641, was before that period used for baking. Chronica Cygnea, auct.
Tob. Schmidten. Zwikau, 1656, v. vol. 4to, ii. p. 219. See also Theatri
Freibergensis Chronicon. Freyberg, 1653, 4to, ii. p. 335. Anno 1580, a
great drought and scarcity of water. Of all the mills near town there
were only fifteen going; and in order that the people might be better
supplied with meal, the bolting machinery was removed, and this was
attended with such good consequences that each mill could grind as much
as before. In Walser’s Appenzeller Chronik. 8vo, p. 471, we are told
that about that time (1533), a freeman of Memmingen taught the people
of Appenzel to make the beautiful white bolted flour so much and so far
celebrated.
[439] Transactions of the Economical Society at Leipsic, 1772. Dresden,
8vo, p. 79.
[440] According to the general rescript of 1750, which has been often
renewed. The company obtained this exclusive right as early as the year
1668.
[441] One may easily perceive by what Pliny says, that the Romans
had made a variety of observations and experiments on grinding and
baking. By comparing his information with what we know at present, I
have remarked two things, which, as they will perhaps be serviceable
to those who hereafter may endeavour to illustrate Pliny, I shall lay
before the reader. That author says, book xviii. ch. 9, “Quæ sicca
moluntur plus farinæ reddunt; quæ salsa aqua sparsa, candidiorem
medullam, verum plus retinent in furfure.” A question here arises,
whether the corn was moistened before it was ground, and whether this
was done with fresh or with salt water. If Pliny, as is probable, here
means a thorough soaking, he is not mistaken; for it is certain that
corn which has been exposed to much wet yields less meal, and that the
meal, which is rather gray or reddish than white, will not keep long.
The millers also are obliged, when corn has been much wetted, to put it
through the mill oftener, because it is more difficult to be ground.
It is true also, that when salt water is used for moistening corn, the
meal becomes clammier and more difficult to be separated from the bran.
It is well known that it is not proper to steep in salt water, malt
which is to be ground for beer. On the other hand, a moderate soaking,
which requires experience and attention, is useful, and is employed in
preparing the finest kinds of flour, such as the Frankfort, Augsburg
and Ulm speltmeal, which is exported to distant countries.
There is another passage in the tenth chapter of the same book of
Pliny, where he seems to recommend a thorough soaking of corn that is
to be ground. “De ipsa ratione pisendi Magonis proponetur sententia:
triticum ante perfundi aqua multa jubet, postea evalli, deinde sole
siccatum pilo repeti.” I am of opinion that we have here the oldest
account of the manner of making meal; that is, by pounding. This
appears to me probable from the words immediately preceding, which I
have above endeavoured to explain, and from the word _evalli_. I do not
think that it ought to be translated _to winnow_, as Salmasius says, in
Exercitat. Plinianæ, p. 907; but agree with Gesner in Thesaur. Steph.,
that it signifies to free the corn from the husk. The corn was first
separated from the husks by pounding, which was more easily done after
the grain had been soaked; the shelled corn was then soaked again, and
by these means rendered so brittle that it was easily pounded to meal.
The like method is employed when people make grits without a mill, only
by pounding; a process mentioned by Krünitz in his Encyclopédie, vol.
ix. p. 805.
[442] Further information on this subject may be found collected in
Krünitz, Encyclopédie, vol. iii. p. 334. According to experiments
mentioned by Köhler, a hundred pounds of meal in Germany produce a
hundred and fifty pounds of dough, and these a hundred and fifty-three
pounds eleven and a half ounces of good bread.
[443] See the treatise of Rosa, professor of medicine at Pavia, on the
baking of bread in Lombardy, in Atti dell’ Academia delle Scienze di
Siena, tom. iv. p. 321.
[444] “Italy, the most celebrated country in the world, and abundant
in grain, has no delicate, wholesome and pleasant bread, but what is
baked by a German baker, who, by art and industrious labour, subdues
the fire, tempers the heat, and equalises the flour in such a manner,
that the bread becomes light, fine and delicate; whereas, if baked by
an Italian, it is heavy, hard, unwholesome and insipid. His holiness,
therefore, prelates, kings, princes and great lords, seldom eat any
bread except what is baked in the German manner. The Germans not only
bake well our usual bread, but they prepare also biscuit for the use
of ships or armies in the time of war, with so much skill, that the
Venetians have German bakers only in their public bakehouses; and their
biscuit is sent far and wide over Illyria, Macedonia, the Hellespont,
Greece, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Spain, France, and even to the
Orkney Islands and Britain, to be used by their own seamen, or sold to
other nations.”--Historia Suevorum, lib. i. c. 8. This history of Felix
Fabri may be found in Suevicarum Rerum Scriptores, Goldasti. Franc.
1605, 4to, and Ulm, 1727, fol.
[445] Bericht von Brodtbacken, etc., durch Sab. Mullein, Leipsig, 1616,
4to. Muller’s work is republished in Arcana et Curiositates Œconomicæ.
By David Maiern, 1706, 8vo.
[446] Schreber, in his Observations on Malouin, shows that the
mill-stones in France are too large.
[447] Traité de la Police, par De la Mare, ii. p. 259.
[448] “Défenses sont aussi faites à tous boulangers, tant maîtres
que forains, de faire remoudre aucun son, pour par après en faire et
fabriquer du pain, attendu qu’il seroit indigne d’entrer au corps
humain, sur peine de quarante-huit livres Parisis d’amende.”--De la
Mare, p. 228. The following was the true cause of this prohibition. As
a heavy tax in kind was demanded for all the meal brought to Paris,
many sent thither not meal, but bran abundant in meal, which they
caused to be ground and sifted there, and by these means acquired
no small gain. When the tax was abolished, an end was put to this
deception, which would otherwise have brought the _mouture économique_
much sooner to perfection.
[449] Histoire de la Vie Privée des François, par M. Le Grand d’Aussy.
Paris, 1782, 3 vols. 8vo, i. p. 50.
[450] Budæus De Asse. Basiliæ, 1556, fol. p. 214.
[451] De Koophandel van Amsterdam, door Le Long. ii. p. 538.
[452] Digestorum lib. xxxix. tit. 2. 24.
[453] _Ibid._ lib. xliii. tit. 12. 1.
[454] See a diploma of Frederic I., dated 1159, in Tolneri Codex
Diplomaticus Palatinus, Franc. 1700, fol. p. 54. In Reliquiæ
Manuscriptorum, P. Ludewig. Franc. 1720, 8vo, ii. p. 200, we read an
instance of the emperor Frederic I. having forbidden the building of a
mill.
[455] Digestor. lib. xliii. tit. 11, 12.
[456] Einleitung in die Lehre von den Regalien. Rostock, 1757, 4to, p.
494.
[457] Chronicon Canon, reg. ord. August. capituli Windesemensis;
auctore Joh. Buschio. Antv. 1621, 8vo, p. 73.
[458] Schrevelii Harlemum. Lugd. Bat. 1647, 4to, p. 181.
[459] This letter of Fulbert may be found in Maxima Bibliotheca Veterum
Patrum. Lugduni 1677, fol. tom. xviii. p. 9.
[460] In Labbei Biblioth. Manuscr. i. p. 132.
[461] Traités de la Police, ii. p. 151.