[487] Called by the Greeks στυπτηρία.
[488] [It is scarcely necessary to observe, that many of the compounds
of sulphuric acid with metallic oxides were formerly commonly termed
_vitriols_ from their glassy appearance; thus, the green vitriol,
or briefly vitriol, is the sulphate of the protoxide of iron, white
vitriol is sulphate of zinc, and blue vitriol is the sulphate of
copper. Sulphuric acid is still more generally known by the name of oil
of vitriol and vitriolic acid, from its having been originally obtained
by distilling green vitriol.]
[489] [There can be little doubt however that even Pliny was acquainted
with our alum, but did not distinguish it from sulphate of iron, for he
informs us that one kind of alum was white and was used for dyeing wool
of bright colours.--Pereira’s Materia Medica, vol. i.]
[490] [The alums, for at present several kinds are distinguished, are
not merely combinations of sulphuric acid and the earth alumina, but
double sulphates, the one constituent being sulphate of alumina, the
other either sulphate of potash, sulphate of ammonia, sulphate of
soda, &c. The alum of this country generally contains potash, that of
France ammonia, or both potash and ammonia, hence the name potash-alum,
ammonia-alum, &c.]
[491] [Although native alum is not abundant, there is no question of
its occasional occurrence.]
[492] Plin. lib. xxxiv. c. 12. The same account is given by Isidor.
Origin. lib. xvi. c. 2, and by Dioscorides, lib. v. c. 114. The latter,
however, differs from Pliny in many circumstances.
[493] Those who are desirous of seeing everything that the ancients
have left us respecting their alum may consult Aldrovandi Museum
Metallicum, Lugd. 1636, fol. p. 334.
[494] Herodot. lib. ii. c. 180.
[495] Diodor. Sic. lib. v. ed. Wesselingii, i. p. 338.
[496] Tournefort, Voyage i. p. 63. Some information respecting the
same subject may be seen in that expensive but useful work, Voyage
Pittoresque de la Grèce, i. p. 12.
[497] Diodor. Sic. lib. c. Strabo, lib. vi. edit. Almel. p. 423.
[498] Copious information respecting the Spanish alum-works may be
found in Introduccion à la Historia Natural de Espagna, par D. G.
Bowles: and in Dillon’s Travels through Spain, 1780, 4to, p. 220.
[499] The derivation of the Latin name _alumen_, which, if I mistake
not, occurs first in Columella and Pliny, is unknown. Some deduce it
from ἅλμη; others from ἄλειμμα; and Isidore gives a derivation still
more improbable. May it not have come from Egypt with the best sort
of alum? Had it originated from a Greek word, it would undoubtedly
have been formed from στυπτηρία. This appellation is to be found in
Herodotus; and nothing is clearer than that it has arisen from the
astringent quality peculiar to both the salts, and also from στύφειν,
as has been remarked by Dioscorides, Pliny, and Galen.
[500] Etymol. p. 779.
[501] Plin. lib. xxxiv. c. 12.
[502] Noct. Att. lib. xv. c. 1.
[503] The _halotrichum_ of Scopoli. The first person who discovered
this salt to be vitriolic was Henkel, who calls it _Atlas-vitriol_.
[The mineral halotrichite is, in a chemical sense, a true alum in which
the sulphate of potash is replaced by the sulphate of the protoxide of
iron. It is composed of one atom of protosulphate of iron, one atom of
sulphate of alumina, and contains, like all the true alums, twenty-four
atoms of water.]
[504] Wecker De Secretis, lib. ix. 18, p. 445.
[505] One instance of its being used for this purpose is found in
Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. xx. c. 12.
[506] [This cannot be correct; for Geber, who is supposed to have lived
in the eighth century, was acquainted with three kinds of it, and
describes the method of preparing burnt alum.]
[507] Joh. Serapionis Arabis de simplicibus medicinis opus, cap. 410.
[508] Reisebeschreibung, ii. p. 408, 409.
[509] This singular appellation occurs in Valentini Historia
Simplicium, and several other works.
[510] Jul. Cæs. Scaligeri Exot. exercitat. Franc. 1612, 8vo, p. 325.
[511] I shall here take occasion to remark, that schist seems to have
been employed for making alum in the time of Agricola, as appears by
his book De Ortu et Causis Subterraneorum, p. 47.
[512] Mercati, Metallotheca, p. 54.
[513] Pyrotechnia. Ven. 1559, 4to.
[514] Leibnitii Protogæa, p. 47.
[515] Bellonii Observationes, cap. lxi.
[516] “In Phocis, which lies close to Ionia, there is a mountain
abundant in aluminous mineral. The stones found on the top of this
mountain are first calcined in the fire, and then reduced to powder by
being thrown into water. The water mixed with that powder is put into a
kettle; and a little more water being added to it, and the whole having
been made to boil, the powder is lixiviated, and the thick part which
falls to the bottom in a cake is preserved; what is hard and earthy is
thrown away as of no use. The cake is afterwards suffered to dissolve
in vessels for four days; at the end of which the alum is found in
crystals around their edges, and the bottoms of them also are covered
with pieces and fragments of the like nature. The remaining liquor,
which at the end of four days does not harden, is poured into a kettle,
more water and more powder are added to it, and being boiled as before,
it is put into proper vessels, and the alum obtained in this manner is
preserved as an article very necessary for dyers. All masters of ships
bound from the Levant to Europe, consider alum as a very convenient and
useful lading for vessels.... In the reign of Michael Palæologus, the
first emperor of his family, some Italians requested a lease of that
mountain, for which they promised to pay a certain sum annually.... The
Romans and the Latins built Phocæa Nova on the sea-shore, at the bottom
of that mountain which lies on the east side of it. On the west it has
the island of Lesbos, on the north the neighbouring bay of Elæa, and on
the south it looks towards the Ionian sea.”--Ducæ Historia Byzantina.
Venet. 1729, p. 71.
[517] The alum of Smyrna is mentioned by Baumé in his Experimental
Chemistry, i. p. 458.
[518] Some account of other Eastern alum-works is contained in a
treatise of F. B. Pegolotti, written in the middle of the fourteenth
century, on the state of commerce at that time, and printed in a book
entitled Della decima e di varie altre gravezze imposte dal commune di
Firenze. Lisbona e Lucca, 1765, 4to, 4 vols. It appears from this work,
that in the fourteenth century the Italians were acquainted with no
other than Turkish alum.
[519] “I shall embrace this opportunity of giving a brief account
of the situation of the island, and of the nature of its soil. That
Ænaria has been at some time violently separated from the continent
by an earthquake, seems proved by a variety of circumstances, such
as calcined rocks; the ground full of caverns; and the earth, which,
like that of the main land, being abundant in warm springs, and dry,
feeds internal fire, and on that account contains a great deal of alum.
A few years ago Bartholomew Perdix, a Genoese merchant passing this
island in his way to Naples, observed some aluminous rocks scattered
here and there along the sea-coast. About a hundred and sixty-three
years before that period, the earth having suddenly burst by the
effects of fire confined in its bowels, a considerable part of Ænaria
was involved in flames. By this eruption a small town was burned and
afterwards swallowed up; and large masses of rock mixed with flames,
sand and smoke, thrown up where the shore looks towards Cumæ, fell upon
the neighbouring fields, and destroyed the most fruitful and the most
pleasant part of the island. Some of these huge pieces of rock being at
that time still lying on the shore, Bartholomew, by calcining them in
a furnace, extracted alum from them, and revived that art which he had
brought from Rocca in Syria, where he had traded for several years, and
which had been neglected in Italy for many centuries.”--Pontani Hist.
Neapol. in Grævii Thesaurus Antiq. Italiæ, ix. part 3. p. 88.
[520] “I must not omit to mention that about this time Bartholomew
Pernix, a citizen and merchant of Genoa, who had resided long in Syria
for the purpose of commerce, returned to his native country. Soon
after, he made a voyage to the island of Ænaria, situated in the Tuscan
sea, called formerly Pythacusa, and now in the vulgar Greek Iscla or
Ischia; and being a man of an acute genius, and a diligent investigator
of natural objects, he observed near the sea-coast several rocks fit
for making alum. He took some fragments of them therefore, and having
calcined them in a furnace, he procured from them most excellent alum.
He was the first person who, to the incredible benefit of many, brought
as it were again into use that art long abandoned and almost lost in
Italy and the greater part of other countries. On that account his name
deserves to be rescued from oblivion.”--Genuensis Rerum Annal. auct. P.
Bizaro Sentinati. Antv. 1579, fol. p. 302.
[521] “About that period (1459) Bartholomew Pernix, a Genoese merchant,
sailing past the island of Ænaria or Ischia, learned that there were
near the shore many aluminous rocks, that is to say, fit for making
alum. He took some of them, therefore, and having caused them to be
calcined in a furnace, he procured from them most excellent alum. This
Bartholomew brought back to Italy from the city of Rocca, in Syria,
where he had traded many years, the art of making alum, which had been
neglected and lost for a long space of time.”--Annali della Republica
di Genoa, per Agostino Giustiniano. Genoa, 1537, fol. lib. v. p. 214.
[522] Dom. Bottone, Pyrologia Topographica. Neapoli, 1692, 4to. This
author calls the inventor Perdix, and not Pernix.
[523] Fabricii Biblioth. Lat. mediæ et infimæ Ætatis, vol. v. p. 617.
[524] “A little before that period came to Rome John di Castro, with
whom the Pontiff had been acquainted when he carried on trade at Basle,
and was banker to Pope Eugenius. His father, Paul, was a celebrated
lawyer of his time, who sat many years in the chair at Padua, and
filled all Italy with his decisions; for law-suits were frequently
referred to him, and judges paid great respect to his authority, as
he was a man of integrity and sound learning. At his death he left
considerable riches, and two sons arrived to the age of manhood, the
elder of whom, following the profession of the father, acquired a
very extensive knowledge of law. The other, who was a man of genius,
and who applied more to study, made himself acquainted with grammar
and history: but, being fond of travelling, he resided some time at
Constantinople, and acquired much wealth by dyeing cloth made in Italy,
which was transported thither and committed to his care, on account of
the abundance of alum in that neighbourhood. Having by these means an
opportunity of seeing daily the manner in which alum was made, and from
what stones or earth it was extracted, he soon learned the art. When,
by the will of God, that city was taken and plundered about the year
1453, by Mahomet II., emperor of the Turks, he lost his whole property;
but, happy to have escaped the fire and sword of these cruel people,
he returned to Italy, after the assumption of Pius II., to whom he
was related, and from whom he obtained, as an indemnification for his
losses, the office of commissary-general over all the revenues of the
Apostolic Chamber, both within and without the city. While, in this
situation, he was traversing all the hills and mountains, searching
the bowels of the earth, leaving no stone or clod unexplored, he at
length found some alum-stone in the neighbourhood of Tolfa. Old Tolfa
is a town belonging to two brothers, subjects of the Church of Rome,
and situated at a small distance from Civita Vecchia. Here there are
high mountains, retiring inland from the sea, which abound with wood
and water. While Castro was examining these, he observed that the grass
had a new appearance. Being struck with wonder, and inquiring into the
cause, he found that the mountains of Asia, which enrich the Turkish
treasury by their alum, were covered with grass of the like kind.
Perceiving several white stones, which seemed to be minerals, he bit
some of them, and found that they had a saltish taste. This induced him
to make some experiments by calcining them, and he at length obtained
alum. He repaired therefore to the Pontiff, and addressing him said,
‘I announce to you a victory over the Turk. He draws yearly from the
Christians above three hundred thousand pieces of gold, paid to him
for the alum with which we dye wool different colours, because none
is found here but a little at the island of Hiscla, formerly called
Ænaria, near Puteoli, and in the cave of Vulcan at Lipari, which, being
formerly exhausted by the Romans, is now almost destitute of that
substance. I have however found seven hills, so abundant in it, that
they would be almost sufficient to supply seven worlds. If you will
send for workmen, and cause furnaces to be constructed, and the stones
to be calcined, you may furnish alum to all Europe; and that gain which
the Turk used to acquire by this article, being thrown into your hands,
will be to him a double loss. Wood and water are both plenty, and you
have in the neighbourhood the port of Civita Vecchia, where vessels
bound to the West may be loaded. You can now make war against the Turk:
this mineral will supply you with the sinews of war, that is money,
and at the same time deprive the Turk of them.’ These words of Castro
appeared to the Pontiff the ravings of a madman: he considered them as
mere dreams, like the predictions of astrologers; and all the cardinals
were of the same opinion. Castro, however, though his proposals were
often rejected, did not abandon his project, but applied to his
Holiness by various persons, in order that experiments might be made
in his presence, on the stones which he had discovered. The Pontiff
employed skilful people, who proved that they really contained alum;
but lest some deception might have been practised, others were sent to
the place where they had been found, who met with abundance of the like
kind. Artists who had been employed in the Turkish mines in Asia were
brought from Genoa; and these, having closely examined the nature of
the place, declared it to be similar to that of the Asiatic mountains
which produce alum; and, shedding tears for joy, they kneeled down
three times, worshiping God, and praising his kindness in conferring
so valuable a gift on our age. The stones were calcined, and produced
alum more beautiful than that of Asia, and superior in quality. Some
of it was sent to Venice and to Florence, and, being tried, was found
to answer beyond expectation. The Genoese first purchased a quantity
of it, to the amount of twenty thousand pieces of gold; and Cosmo of
Medici for this article laid out afterwards seventy-five thousand. On
account of this service, Pius thought Castro worthy of the highest
honours and of a statue, which was erected to him in his own country,
with this inscription: ‘To John di Castro, the inventor of alum;’
and he received besides a certain share of the profit. Immunities
and a share also of the gain were granted to the two brothers, lords
of Tolfa, in whose land the aluminous mineral had been found. This
accession of wealth to the Church of Rome was made, by the divine
blessing, under the pontificate of Pius II.; and if it escape, as it
ought, the hands of tyrants, and be prudently managed, it may increase
and afford no small assistance to the Roman Pontiffs in supporting
the burdens of the Christian religion.”--Pii Secundii Comment. Rer.
Memorab. quæ temp. suis contigerunt. Francof. 1614, fol. p. 185.
[525] “The Frangipani a third time acquired lands in the kingdom of
Naples. When they possessed in Maremma di Roma, Tolfa, Castello, and a
jurisdiction which brings at present eighty thousand crowns annually
to the Church, it happened that a son of Paul di Castro, a celebrated
doctor, and a vassal of these lords, who had been many years a slave
in Turkey to an alum-merchant, returned free to his own country; and
observing that in the territories of Tolfa there was abundance of alum
mineral, he gave notice of it to Lodovico Frangipani, his lord, and was
the cause of greatly increasing his revenues. Pope Paul II., however,
pretending that the mineral belonged to the Apostolic See, as supreme
lord of the fief, and not being able to persuade Lodovico to give it up
to the Church, he declared war against him, but was vigorously opposed
by Lodovico and his brother Peter, lords of Tolfa, assisted by the
Orsini their relations; so that the Pope was obliged to bring about
an accommodation with them by means of king Ferrante I., and to pay
them as the price of Tolfa sixteen thousand crowns of gold, of which
Lodovico gave twelve thousand to the king, and was invested by him in
the lordship of Serino in the year 1469.”
[526] Ferbers Briefe über Welschland, p. 246.
[527] “This year (1460) is distinguished by the discovery of alum
at Tolfa vecchia, no one there having been acquainted with it till
that period: and this happened by means of one John di Castro, who
had acquired some knowledge of it from a young man of Corneto, and a
Genoese, who had learned in Turkey the whole process of making it. The
said John having observed that in the mountains of Tolfa there were
undoubtedly veins of alum, he caused some of the earth and stones to
be dug up, and the first experiments were made on them at Viterbo in
the following manner. The stones were first calcined in a furnace; a
large quantity of water was then thrown over them; and when they were
entirely dissolved, the water was boiled in great leaden caldrons;
after which it was poured into wooden vessels, where, evaporating by
degrees, the result was alum of the most perfect kind. Pope Pius II.,
sensible of the great benefit which might arise from this mineral to
the Apostolic Chamber, employed more than eight hundred persons at
Tolfa in preparing it.”--Historia della Città de Viterbo, di Feliciano
Bussi. In Roma 1742, fol. p. 262.
[528] Museo di Fisica, &c. Ven. 1697, p. 152.
[529] Viaggi, vii. p. 234.
[530] Anno 1458. “Rock alum, which the Greeks call _pharno_, was
at this time first discovered by a Genoese in the territories of
Volterra, where being boiled and found to be good, it began to be dug
up afterwards in many of the mountains of Italy. Till that period
the Italians had made no use of mines of this kind; for our alum was
all brought from Turkey. The above discovery was therefore a great
advantage to us.”
[531] An account of this dispute between the Florentines and the people
of Volterra may be seen in Machiavelli’s History of Florence, book vii.
[532] Rap. Volaterrani Comment. Urbani.
[533] De Thermis.
[534] Viaggi, iii. p. 117.
[535] Ibid. vii. p. 51.
[536] De Thermis, p. 293. Tozzetti, iv. p. 186.
[537] Nicol. Rodrig. Fermosini Tractatus Criminalium. Lugd. 1670, 2
vol. fol. tom. ii. p. 63.
[538] Pyrotechn. p. 31. He says expressly that this was the only
alum-work in Europe in his time without the boundaries of Italy.
[539] History of Commerce, iv. p. 406. “The manufacture of alum,” says
he, “was first found out in England, and carried on with success in
1608. It was supported and patronized in the county of York by lord
Sheffield, sir John Bourcher, and other landholders of the said county,
to the great benefit of England in general, and of the proprietors in
particular, to the present day. King James was a great promoter of this
alum-work, after he had by the advice of his minister appropriated to
himself a monopoly of it, and forbidden the importation of foreign
alum.”
[540] Such is the account of Pennant in his Tour in Scotland, 1768.
“The alum-works in this country are of some antiquity; they were first
discovered by sir Thomas Chaloner in the reign of queen Elizabeth, who
observing the trees tinged with an unusual colour, made him suspicious
of its being owing to some mineral in the neighbourhood. He found
out that the strata abounded with an aluminous salt. At that time
the English being strangers to the method of managing it, there is
a tradition that sir Thomas was obliged to seduce some workmen from
the Pope’s alum-works near Rome, then the greatest in Europe. If one
may judge from the curse which his Holiness thundered out against sir
Thomas and his fugitives, he certainly was not a little enraged; for
he cursed by the very form that Ernulphus has left us, and not varied
a tittle from that most comprehensive of imprecations. The first pits
were near Gisborough, the seat of the Chaloners, who still flourish
there notwithstanding his Holiness’s anathema.” The following passage,
extracted from Camden’s Britannia, is much to the same purpose: “This
(alum) was first discovered a few years since (anno 1607) by the
admirable sagacity of that learned naturalist sir Thomas Chaloner,
knt. (to whose tuition his majesty (king James the First) committed
the delight and glory of Britain, his son prince Henry), by observing
that the leaves of trees were of a more weak sort of green here than in
other places, &c.”
[541] “For some time past the marquis of Lepri has farmed the
alum-works at Civita Vecchia for 37,000 scudi. The Apostolical Chamber
supplies the necessary wood, which the marquis must be at the expense
of cutting down and transporting. About two hundred men are employed in
the works; and alum to the amount of from forty-five thousand to fifty
thousand scudi is sold annually, particularly to the English and the
French.” See Voyage en Italie, par le Baron de R. (Riesch.) Dresden,
1781, 2 vols. 8vo.
[542] Voyages Metallurgiques, par M. Jars, vol. iii. p. 297.
[543] See Chemical Gazette for July 15, 1843.