[904] Winkelmann in his Observations on the Baths of the Ancients.
[905] The following are the principal authors in whose works
information is to be found respecting this subject:--Octavii Ferrarii
Electorum libri duo. Patavii 1679, 4to. This work consists of short
treatises on different subjects of antiquity. The ninth chapter of the
first book, page 32, has for title, “Fumaria, seu fumi emissaria, vulgo
caminos, apud veteres in usu fuisse, disputatur.”
Justi Lipsii Epistolarum selectarum Chilias, 1613, 8vo. The
seventy-fifth letter in Centuria tertia ad Belgas, page 921, treats of
chimneys, with which the author says the Greeks and the Romans were
unacquainted.
Eberharti a Weyhe Parergon De Camino. To save my readers the trouble
which I have had in searching for this small treatise, I shall give
them the following information: E. von Weyhe was a learned nobleman of
our electorate, a particular account of whose life and writings may be
found in Molleri Cimbria Litterata, vol. ii. p. 970. In the year 1612
he published Discursus de speculi origine, usu et abusu, Eberharti von
Weyhe. This edition contains nothing on chimneys, nor is there any
thing to be found respecting them in the second, inserted in Dornavii
Amphitheatrum Sapientiæ Socraticæ Joco-seriæ, Hanoviæ 1619, fol. i. p.
733. But this treatise was twice printed afterwards, as an appendix to
the author’s Aulicus Politicus: Francf. 1615, and Wolfenb. 1622, in
quarto; and in both these editions may be found at the end, Parergon de
camino, inquirendi causa adjectum. In this short essay, which consists
of only two pages, the author denies that the Jews, the Greeks, or the
Romans had chimneys. Fabricius, in his Bibliograph. Antiquaria, does
not quote Von Weyhe, either p. 1004, where he speaks of chimneys, or
page 1014, where he speaks of looking-glasses.
Balthasaris Bonifacii Ludicra Historia. Venetiis 1652, 4to, lib. iii.
cap. 23. De Caminis, p. 109. What this author says on the subject is of
little importance.
Jo. Heringii Tractatus de molendinis eorumque jure, Francf. 1663, 4to.
P. Manutii Comment. in Ciceronis Epist. Familiar. lib. vii. epist.
10, decides against chimneys, and speaks of the manner of warming
apartments.
Petronii Satyricon, cura Burmanni, Amst. 1743, 4to, i. p. 836. Burmann,
on good grounds, is of opinion that the ancients had not chimneys.
Martini Lexicon Philologicum. Franc. 1655, fol. article _Caminus_.
Pancirollus De Rebus deperditis, ed. Salmuth, vol. i. tit. 33, p. 77.
Montfaucon, l’Antiquité expliquée, vol. i. p. 102. Montfaucon believes
that the ancients had chimneys.
Pitisci Lexicon Antiquitatum Romanarum, fol. The whole article
_Caminus_ is transcribed from Lipsius, Ferrarius, and others, without
the author’s own opinion.
Muratori, Antiquitates Italiæ Medii Ævi, ii. p. 418.
Constantini Libri de Ceremoniis aulæ Byzantinæ, t. ii. Lipsiæ, 1754,
fol. in Reiskii Commentar. p. 125.
Encyclopédie, tome troisième, Paris, 1753, fol. p. 281.
Deutsche Encyclopedie, vol. iv. Frank. 1780, 4to, p. 823.
Maternus von Cilano, Römische Alterthümer, vol. iv. Altona, 1776,
8vo, p. 945. This author is of opinion that chimneys were used by the
Greeks, but not by the Romans.
Bibliothèque Ancienne et Moderne, par Jean le Clerc, tom. xiii. 1720,
part i. p. 56. The author gives an extract from Montfaucon, which
contains a great many new observations.
Zanetti dell’ origine di alcune arti principali appresso i Veneziani.
Venezia, 1758, 4to, p. 78.
Raccolta d’ opuscoli scientifici e filologici. Venezia, 1752, 12mo,
tom. xlvii. A Treatise on Chimneys by Scip. Maffei is to be found page
67.
[906] Odyss. lib. i. ver. 58.
[907] Lib. viii. c. 137.
[908] Ver. 139.
[909] Lib. ix. p. 386.
[910] Lib. vi. p. 236.
[911] Lib. ix. p. 378.
[912] Antholog. lib. ii. cap. 32. p. 229.
[913] De Bellis Civil. lib. iv. p. 962, edit. Tollii.
[914] Sat. x. ver. 17.
[915] Epist. 64.
[916] Such fire-watchmen were appointed by the emperor
Augustus.--Sueton. in Vit. Octav. August. cap. 30. That these watchmen,
whom the soldiers in ridicule called Sparteoli, were stationed in the
neighbourhood of houses where there were grand entertainments, is
proved by Tertulliani Apologet. cap. xxxix. p. 188, edit. De la Cerda.
Compare also Casaubon’s annotations on the passage of Suetonius above
quoted.
[917] Eclog. i. ver. 83.
[918] Aulular. act. ii. sc. 4.
[919] De Re Rustica, lib. i. cap. 6.
[920] Horat. lib. i. sat. 5.
[921] Grapaldus De Partibus Ædium.
[922] Plin. xxxiii. cap. 4. Virgil. Æn. iii. ver. 580. Juvenal, sat.
xiv. ver. 117.
[923] Lib. vii. cap. 3.
[924] The name _atrium_ had its rise from the walls of such places
being black with smoke. Isidorus, xv. 3. This derivation is given also
by Servius, Æn. lib. i. ver. 730.
[925] Seneca, ep. 44. Cicero in Pison. cap. i. Juvenal, sat. viii. ver.
6.
[926] In the _Equites_ of Aristophanes the houses of the common people
are called γύπαι and γυπάρια, because γὺψ signifies _fuliginosum_
or _fuscum_. On account of the smoke they were called also μέλαθρα.
Lycophron, 770, and 1190. Μέλαθρον αἰθαλόεν, domicilium fuliginosum,
occurs in Homer, Iliad. ii. ver. 414, of which expression and i. ver.
204, the scholiast very properly gives the following explanation: ἀπὸ
τοῦ μελαίνεσθαι ὑπὸ τοῦ κάπνου, quoniam a fumo reddebantur nigræ. For
the same reason, according to the scholiasts, Apollonius Rhodius, lib.
ii. ver. 1089, calls the middle beam of the roof μέλαθρον. Columella,
i. 17, says, “Fuligo quæ supra focos tectis inhæret:” among us the soot
adheres to the funnel of the chimney, and not to the roof or ceiling.
Tecta senis subeunt, nigro deformia fumo;
Ignis in hesterno stipite parvus erat.--Ovid. Fast. lib. v. 505.
In cujus hospitio nec fumi nec nidoris nebulam vererer.--Apuleii
Metam. 1.
Sordidum flammæ trepidant rotantes
Vertice fumum.--Horat. iv. od. 11.
It may be here said, that the above passages allude to the hovels of
the poor, which are black enough among us. These are not, however,
all so smoky and so covered with soot both without and within; for
though this may be the case in some villages, the houses of the common
people in our cities may be called dirty rather than smoky. These
passages of Roman authors speak principally of town-houses. The house
in which Horace wished to entertain his Phyllis was not a mean one,
for, he tells her a little before, “Ridet argento domus.” [Black huts
or hovels, such as are described in the above remarks, having merely a
hole in the roof, or an open window for the escape of smoke, are still
common in Ireland, and in some of the less-frequented villages of the
Continent. Indeed they are met with even in England. But in all cases
the buildings appear to be very ancient.]
[927] Hesiodi Op. ver. 627. Virgilii Georg. lib. i. 175.
[928] Columella, i. 6, et viii. cap. 3.
[929] Columella, lib. i. cap. 6, p. 405. Artificial heat could not be
employed to prevent oil from becoming clotted by being frozen; for it
was liable to be hurt by soot and smoke, the constant attendants of
artificial warming.--Columella, lib. i. cap. 6.
[930] This method of preparing wood is described by Theophrastus, Hist.
Plant. lib. xv. cap. 10.
[931] Cato De Re Rust. cap. 130. Pliny, lib. xv. cap. 8.
[932] Such wood in Greek was called ἄκαπτα, in Latin _acapna_, in
Homer’s Odyssey, book vi. κάγκανα and δανὰ, Pollux, p. 621, καύσιμα.
This wood is mentioned also by Galen, in Antidot. lib. i. Trebellius
Pollio in Vita Claudii, in an account of the firing allowed to him when
a tribune, shows that wood was given out or sold by weight, as it is at
present at Amsterdam. On the other hand, the _coctilia_ were measured
like coals. Martial, lib. xiii. ep. 15: Ligna acapna:--
Si vicina tibi Nomento rura coluntur,
Ad villam monco, rustice, ligna feres.
It would seem that in the above-mentioned neighbourhood there was no
wood proper for fuel, so that people were obliged to purchase that
which had been dried. Some hence conclude that the _acapna_ must not
have been dear, because it is recommended to a countryman. But the
advice here given is addressed to the possessor of a farm who certainly
could afford to purchase dried wood.
[933] Jul. Capitol. in Vita Pertin. cap. iii. Capitolinus says
before, that the father carried on _lignariam negotiationem_. See the
annotations of Salmasius and Casaubon.
[934] Horat. lib. i. sat. 5, 79.
[935] Plutarch. Apophthegm. p. 180.
[936] Plutarch. Sympos. lib. vi. 7.
[937] Æl. Lamprid. Vita Heliogab. cap. 31.
[938] See also Tavernier, Voyages, vol. i.--Olearius, vol.
i.--Schweigger’s Reisebeschreibung nach Constantinopel und Jerusalem,
p. 264.--Voyage de Chardin, 12mo, vol. iv. p. 236.--Voyage Littéraire
de la Grèce, par M. Guys, Paris, 1776, 2 vols. 8vo, i. p. 34. Because
this author is one of the latest who has taken the trouble to compare
the manners of the ancient and modern Greeks, I shall here give his
account at full length:--“The Greeks have no chimneys in the apartments
of their houses; they make use only of a chaffing-dish, which is placed
in the middle of the apartment to warm it, or for the benefit of those
who choose to approach it. This custom is very ancient throughout all
the East. The Romans had no other method of warming their chambers;
and it has been preserved by the Turks. Λαμπτὴρ, says Hesychius, was
a chaffing-dish placed in the middle of a room, on which dry wood was
burned to warm it, and resinous wood to give light. This chaffing-dish
was supported, as those at present, by a tripod; lamps were not
introduced till long after. To secure the face from any inconvenience,
and from the heat of the chaffing-dish, oftentimes dangerous, the
_tendour_ was invented. This is a square table under which the fire is
placed. It is covered with a carpet which hangs down to the floor, and
with another of silk, more or less rich, by way of ornament. People sit
around it either on a sofa or on the pavement, and they can at the same
time put their hands and their feet under the covering, which, as it
encloses the chaffing-dish on all sides, preserves a gentle and lasting
heat. The tendour is destined principally for the use of the women,
who during the winter pass the whole day around it, employed either in
embroidering or in receiving the visits of their friends.”
[939] As a proof of this, Faber, in his Archæologie der Hebräer, Halle,
1773, 8vo, p. 432, quotes Kelim, v. 1, and Maimonides and Bartenora, p.
36, Tamid, c. 50. Compare Othon. Lex Rabbin. p. 85.
[940] As it would be tedious to transcribe all these passages, I shall,
as examples, give only the following:--
Dissolve frigus, ligna super foco
Large reponens.--Horat. lib. i. od. 9.
These lines show that the poet had an aversion to cold when enjoying
his bottle, and that he wished for a good fire; but they do not inform
us whether the hearth, _focus_, had a chimney. We learn as little
from the advice of Cato, c. 143: “Focum purum circumversum quotidie,
priusquam cubitum eat, habeat.” It was certainly wholesome to rake the
fire together at night, but it might have burned either with or without
a chimney. Cicero, Epist. Famil. lib. vii. 10: “Valde metuo ne frigeas
in hibernis; quam ob rem camino luculento utendum censeo.” Cicero
perhaps understood under that term some well-known kind of stove which
afforded a strong heat. Suetonius, in Vita Vitellii, cap. viii.: “Nec
ante in Prætorium rediit, quam flagrante triclinio ex conceptu camini.”
As Vitellius was proclaimed emperor in January, a warm dining-room
was certainly necessary. Du Cange in his Glossarium quotes the word
_fumariolum_ from the Paræneticum ad Pœnitentiam of the Spaniard
Pacianus; but the latter takes the whole passage from Tertullian, who
wrote more than a century before. Sidonius Apollin. lib. ii. epist. i.:
“A cripto porticu in hyemale triclinium venitur, quod arcuatili camino
sæpe ignis animatus pulla fuligine infecit.” No one can determine with
certainty the meaning of _arcuatilis caminus_. A covering made of a
thin plate of metal, or a screen, was perhaps placed over a portable
stove; we however learn, that even where the _arcuatilis caminus_
was used, the beauty of the dining-room was destroyed by smoke and
soot. Ammianus Marcell. lib. xxv. in the end of the life of Jovian:
“Fertur recente calce cubiculi illiti ferre odorem noxium neqnivisse,
vel extuberato capite periisse succensione prunarum immensa.” This
in an apartment where there was a stove or a chimney would have been
impossible.
The passage of Athenæus, lib. xii. p. 519, which speaks of πύελοι,
will admit of various explanations. Dalechamp thinks that they were
the _poëles_ of the French (something like our stoves). Casaubon says
they were bathing-tubs. This opinion is in some measure confirmed by
Suidas, who gives that meaning to πύελος; and by Jul. Pollux, in whom
it occurs in the same sense more than once. Lipsius however rejects
these explanations, and considers πύελοι to have been _thecæ_, or
vessels similar to those which in low German are called _riken_, and
which, instead of our stoves, are much used in Holland by the women,
who seldom approach the chimney.
[941] Seneca, ep. 90.
[942] Senec. De Provident. p. 138. Cicero ad Fratrem, lib. iii. ep. i.
Plin. lib. ii. ep. 17.
[943] Statii Sylv. lib. i. 5, 17.
[944] Pallad. De Re Rust. lib. i. 20, p. 876.
[945] Digestor. lib. viii. tit. 2, 13.
[946] A passage from And. Baccii Liber de thermis, fol. p. 263,
contains information much of the same kind. See also Robortelli
Laconici seu sudationis, explicatio, in Grævii Thes. Antiq. Rom. xii.
p. 385. Vitruvius, cum annotat. G. Philandri, Lugd. 1586, 4to, p. 279.
Philander says that the ancients conveyed from subterranean stoves,
into the apartments above, the steam of boiling water; but of this I
have found no proof. If this be true, the Roman baths must have been
like the Russian sweating-baths. [Many of the large establishments and
work-shops in this country are now heated by means of hot air, hot
water, or steam circulating through a ramified system of pipes.]
[947] Juliani op. Lips. 1696, fol. p. 341.
[948] Zanetti, p. 78, quotes a charter of that year, in which the
following words occur: “Cum tota sua cella et domo, et caminatis cum
suo solario, et aliis caminatis.”
[949] Such is the opinion of Muratori, Antiq. Ital. Med. Æv. ii. p. 418.
[950] In Muratori, Script. Ital. vol. ix.
[951] Ibid.
[952] Ibid, vol. xvi. p. 582.
[953] Reiske ad Ceremon. aulæ Byzant. p. 145.
[954] The following passages of old writers, collected by Du Cange,
allude to this law. Statuta Leichefeldensis ecclesiæ in Anglia: “Est
autem ignitegium qualibet nocte per annum pulsandum hora septima post
meridiem.” Statuta Massil. lib. v. cap. 4: “Statuimus hac præsenti
constitutione perpetuo observandum, quod nullus de cætero vadat per
civitatem Massiliæ vel suburbia civitatis contigua de nocte, ex quo
campana, quæ dicitur Salvaterra, sonata fuerit, sine lumine.” Charta
Johannis electi archiepisc. Upsaliensis, an. 1291: “Statuimus, ut
nullus extra domum post ignitegium seu coverfu exeat.”
[955] Pol. Vergil. De Rer. Invent. lib. vi. c. 12. Lugd. 1664, 12mo, p.
460.
[956] The year is probably 1457; Calixtus was elected to the papal
chair in 1455.
[957] Dell’ origine di alcune arti principali appresso i Veneziani.
Venezia, 1758, 4to, p. 80.
[958] Historie Fiorentine, lib. xii. cap. 121.
[959] This Chronicon Patavinum may be found in Muratori, Scriptor.
Rerum Ital. vol. xvii.
[960] Gazoni Piazze Universale, Venet. 1610, 4to, p. 364.
[961] A writer in the German Encyclopedie conjectures that the Italian
architects employed in Germany to build houses and palaces of stone,
brought with them people acquainted with the art of constructing larger
and more commodious chimneys than those commonly used.
[962] Dictionnaire des Arts et des Métiers, par Jaubert, vol. iv. p.
534.
[963]
... Ces honnêtes enfans
Qui de Savoye arrivent tous les ans,
Et dont la main légèrement essuye
Ces longs canaux, engorgés par la suie.--VOLTAIRE.
[964] “C’est ainsi que se ramonent toutes les cheminées de Paris; et
des régisseurs n’ont enrégimenté ces petits malheureux, que pour gagner
encore sur leur médiocre salaire. Puissent ces ineptes et barbares
entrepreneurs se ruiner de fond en comble; ainsi que tous ceux qui ont
sollicité des privileges exclusifs!”--Tableau de Paris. Hamburg, 1781,
tom. ii. p. 249. [Owing to many serious accidents which attended the
climbing of chimneys, this practice was put down in this country by Act
of Parliament, (3 & 4 Victoria, c. 85. sec. 2.). The use of machinery
is now substituted, but does not perform the operation so effectively
as the old mode, especially where the flues are in angles.]