[838] Fragments of such inscriptions have been collected by Mercurialis
in his work De Arte Gymnastica, lib. i. cap. 1.
[839] Plin. lib. xxix. cap. 1. Strabo, lib. xiv.
[840] Plin. lib. xii. cap. 2.
[841] Plin. lib. vi. cap. 31.
[842] Hist. Anim. lib. x. cap. 40.
[843] Plin. lib. xxviii. cap. 4.
[844] Plin. lib. xi. cap. 31.
[845] Plin. lib. v. cap. 9. This crocodile was still remaining in the
author’s time.
[846] Lib. xii. cap. 19.
[847] Plin. lib. viii. cap. 12. Valer. Max. lib. i. cap. 8. Orosius,
lib. iv. cap. 8. Jul. Obsequens de prodigiis, cap. 29. Hujus serpentis
maxillæ usque ad Numantinum bellum in publico pependisse dicuntur. May
not this animal have been the Boa constrictor?
[848] Cicero in Verrem, iv. cap. 46. Valer. Max. lib. i.
[849] Scaliger De Subtilit. lib. xv. exercit. 246.
[850] Plin. lib. ix. cap. 5, and v. 13. 31. Strabo, lib. xvi.
[851] Pausanias, in Arcadicis, cap. 46 and 47.
[852] Philostrat. in Vita Apollon. lib. iii. cap. 5. I conjecture that
these nuts were cocoa-nuts.
[853] Vita Augusti, c. 72.
[854] Plin. lib. viii. cap. 16.
[855] Plin. lib. xxxi. cap. 9. Isidorus Origin. lib. xvi. cap. 2. Nitre
also was employed for the like purpose. Plin. lib. xxxi. cap. 10.
Herodot. lib. ii. Sextus Empiricus in Pyrrhon. Hypotypos. cap. 24. The
last author ascribes this custom to the Persians in particular.
[856] Dion Cassius, lib. xxxvii. cap. 14. See the Life of Pompey in
Plutarch, who adds that the countenance of Mithridates could no longer
be distinguished, because the persons who embalmed the body in this
manner had forgotten to take out the brain.
[857] Eunapius in Ædesio.
[858] In Acta sancti Guiberti, cap. 6.
[859] Varro De Re Rustica, lib. ii. cap. 4.
[860] Phlegon Trallian. De Mirabil. cap. 34, 35, adopts in his account
the same expression as that used in the Geoponica, lib. xix. cap. 9,
respecting the preservation of the flesh. Pliny however says, lib.
vii. cap. 3, “Nos principatu Claudii Cæsaris allatum illi ex Ægypto
hippocentaurum in melle vidimus.” Perhaps it was placed in honey after
its arrival at Rome, in order that it might be better preserved.
[861] See Hieronymi Vita Pauli Eremitæ.
[862] Philostorgii Historia Ecclesiastica, 1643, 4to, p. 41.
[863] Columnæ Aquatil. et Terrestr. Observat. cap. 15.
[864] Plin. lib. xxii. cap. 24.
[865] Strabo, lib. xvi.
[866] Xenophon, Rer. Græc. lib. v.
[867] Diodorus Siculus, lib. xv.
[868] Josephi Antiq. Jud. lib. xiv. c. 13. De Bello Jud. lib. i. c. 7.
[869] Æliani Var. Hist. lib. xii. cap. 8.
[870] Statius, Silv. iii. 2.
[871] Curtius, lib. x. cap. 10.
[872] Corippus De Laudibus Justini II.
[873] Varro, in Nonius, cap. iii. The following words of Lucretius, b.
iii. ver. 902, “aut in melle situm suffocari,” allude perhaps to the
above circumstance.
[874] Columella, xii. 45. Apicii Ars Coquinar. lib. i. cap. 20.
[875] Plutarch in the Life of Alexander relates, that among other
valuables in the treasury at Susa, that conqueror found 5000 talents of
the purple dye, which was perfectly fresh, though nearly two hundred
years old, and that its preservation was ascribed to its being covered
with honey. This account is well illustrated in Mercurialis Var. Lect.
lib. vi. cap. 26.
[876] Plin. lib. xxix. cap. 4.
[877] Dier. Genial. lib. iii. cap. 8.
[878] Herodot. lib. iv. cap. 71.
[879] Θάπτουσι δ’ ἐν μέλιτι, κηριῳ περιπλάσαντες. Sepeliunt in melle,
cera cadavere oblito. The bodies therefore were first covered with wax,
and then deposited in honey.
[880] Herodot. lib. i. cap. 140. Cicero, Tusc. Quæst. lib. i. Alexandri
ab Alexan. Dier. Genial. lib. iii. cap. 2.
[881] Plutarchus in Vita Agesilai. The following passage of
Quintilian’s Institut. Orat. lib. vi. cap. 1. 40, is understood by most
commentators, as if the author meant to say that a waxen image of the
person deceased, made by pouring the wax into a mould of gypsum, was
exhibited. “Et prolata novissime, deformitate ipsa (nam ceris cadaver
attulerant infusum) præteritam quoque orationis gratiam perdidit.” See
Turnebi Adversar. lib. xxix. cap. 13. But in my opinion it appears very
probable that the body itself, covered with wax, was carried into the
court.
[882] Near Damietta are found a kind of mullets, which, after being
covered over with wax, are by these means sent throughout all Turkey,
and to different parts of Europe.--Pocock’s Travels.
[883] Theophilus Raynaudus de incorruptione cadaverum, in vol. xiii. of
the works of that learned Jesuit, Lugd. 1665.
[884] Beguillet, Déscription du Duché de Bourgogne, i. p. 192.
[885] Liber Regalis, in the article De exequiis regalibus.
[886] Archæologia, vol. iii. p. 376.
[887] Dart’s Westminster, ii. p. 28.
[888] In the account of the funeral expenses stands the following
article: “To Thomas Graham, apothecary to his majesty, for a fine
double cerecloth, with a large quantity of very rich perfumed aromatic
powders, &c., for embalming his late majesty’s royal body, 152_l._” See
Archæologia, _ut supra_, p. 402.
[889] Livius, lib. xl. cap. 29. Pliny, b. xiii. chap. 13, relates the
same thing, with a little variation, respecting the annals of Cassius
Hemina: “Mirabantur alii, quomodo illi libri durare potuissent. Ille
ita rationem reddebat; lapidem fuisse quadratum circiter in media area
vinctum candelis quoquoversus. In eo lapide insuper libros impositos
fuisse, propterea arbitrari eos non computruisse. Et libros citratos
fuisse, propterea arbitrarier tineas non tetigisse.”--Hardouin thinks
that _libri citrati_ were books in which _folia citri_ were placed to
preserve them from insects. The first editions however have _libri
cedrati_, and even the paper itself may have been covered over with
some resinous substance. The scarce edition which I received as a
present from Professor Bause at Moscow, Opus impressum per Joan. Rubeum
et Bernardinum Fratresque Vercellenses 1507, fol. has in page 98 the
word _caedratos_, and in the margin _caeratos_.
[890] A catalogue of this collection may be found in the second volume
of Valentin’s Museum Museorum.
[891] Von Stettens Kunstgeschichte von Augsburg, p. 218. 362.
[892] With how much care this learned man, who died in 1544, in
the twenty-ninth year of his age, collected minerals and plants is
proved by his Silva Observationum Variarum, quas inter peregrinandum
brevissime notavit. Walch, in his Naturgeschichte der Versteinerungen,
considers it as the first general oryctography of Germany, and is
surprised that so extensive a work should have been thought of at that
period. Wallerius, in his Lucubratio de Systematibus Mineralogicis,
Hohniæ, 1768, 8vo, p. 27, considers this Silva as a systematic
description of all minerals. Both however are mistaken. Cordus
undertook a journey in 1542, through some parts of Germany, and drew
up a short catalogue without order, of the natural objects he met with
in the course of his travels, which was published by Conrad Gesner,
together with the other works of this industrious man, at Strasburg
in 1561. This book, which I have in my possession, has in the title
page, In hoc volumine continetur Valerii Cordi in Dioscoridis libros de
Medica Materia; ejusdem Historiæ Stirpium, &c. The Silva begins page
217.
[893] That Agricola had a good collection, may be concluded from his
writings, in which he describes minerals according to their external
appearance, and mentions the places where they are found.
[894] H. Mohsen says in his Account of Mark Brandenburg, Berlin, 1783,
4to, p. 142. Thurneisser is the first person, as far as is known at
present, who in this country formed a collection of natural curiosities.
[895] “Ortelius habebat domi suæ imagines, statuas, nummos ...
conchas ab ipsis Indis et Antipodibus, marmora omnis coloris, spiras
testudineas tantæ magnitudinis, ut decem ex iis viri in orbem sedentes
cibum sumere possent; alias rursum ita angustas, ut vix magnitudinem
capitelli unius aciculi adæquarent.”--M. Adami Vitæ Germ. Philos.
Heidelb. 1615, 8vo, p. 431.
[896] See Biographia Britannica, vol. iv. p. 2469. [The names of our
early English collectors, Tradescant, Ashmole, Petiver, and Sir Hans
Sloane, though a little later than the period alluded to, deserve to be
recorded here.]
[897] This extract may be seen in D. G. Molleri Dissert. de
Technophysiotameis, Altorfi, 1704, p. 18. Some account of Quickelberg
may be found in Sweertii Athenæ Belgicæ, Antv. 1628, fol. p. 671; in
Val. Andreæ Bibliotheca Belgica, Lov. 1643, 4to, p. 806; and in Simleri
Bibliotheca Instituta a Gesnero, Tiguri, 1574, fol. p. 617.
[898] De Omni Rerum Fossilium Genere, op. Conr. Gesneri. Tig. 1565, 8vo.
[899] He says in the preface, “Thesaurum fossilium multis impensis
collegi, paucis comparabilem.”
[900] This is related by Jacob Fabricius, in the preface to the
treatise of his brother George Fabricius De Metallicis Rebus, which may
be found in Gesner’s collection before-quoted.
[901] This catalogue is printed in Œuvres de B. Palissy. Par M. Faujas
de Saint-Fond et Gobet. Paris, 1777, 4to, p. 691. [Quite recently a new
edition of Palissy’s works, together with an account of the life of
this remarkable man by M. Cap, has been published at Paris. Palissy,
after long devoting his services to the king and some of the royal
family, was shut up in the Bastille on account of his religion. It is
said that one day Henry III., having visited him in his prison, spoke
to him thus: “My good man, you have been for forty-five years in my
mother’s and my service. We have suffered you to live in your religion
amidst fires and massacres: now I am so strongly urged by the Guise
party and by my people, that _I am constrained_ to leave you in the
hands of my enemies, and to-morrow you will be burnt if you are not
converted.” “Sire,” replied Bernard, “I am ready to lay down my life
for the glory of God. You have often told me that you pitied me; and
now I pity you, who have uttered these words, ‘_I am constrained!_’
Sire, it is not speaking like a king; and it is what you yourself,
those who constrain you, the Guisards, and all your people, could
never compel me to; for I know how to die.” Palissy died indeed in the
Bastille, but a natural death, in 1589. Thus ended a career illustrious
alike for great talents and rare virtues.]
[902] Mercati Metallotheca. Romæ, 1717, fol. to which an appendix was
added in 1719.
[903] Joh. Baptistæ Olivi de reconditis et præcipuis collectaneis
a Franc. Calceolario in Museo adservatis testificatio ad Hieron.
Mercurialem. Venet. 1584, 4to. An edition was published also at
Verona in quarto, in 1593. The complete description was however first
printed at Verona in a small folio, in 1622; Musæum Calceolarianum
Veronense. Maffei, in his Verona Illustrat. Veron. 1732, fol. p. 202,
says, “Calceolari ... fu de’ primi, che raccogliendo grandissima
quantità d’erbe, piante, minerali, animali diseccati, droghe rare, cose
impetrite, ed altre rarità naturali, formasse museo di questo genere.”