I. (THE LONDON FOLIO OF 1600.) _Fol. *j. title_ GVILIELMI GIL | berti
colcestren | sis, medici londi- | nensis, | DE MAGNETE, MAGNETI- | cisqve
corporibvs, et de mag- | no magnete tellure; Physiologia noua, | plurimis &
argumentis, & expe- | rimentis demonstrata. | _Printer's Mark_ | Londini |
excudebat Petrvs Short anno | MDC. || _*j verso_ Gilbert's coat of arms. ||
_*ij_ Ad Lectorem || _*iij verso_ Ad gravissimvm doctissimvmqve ... ||
_*vj_ Verborum quorundam interpretatio. || _*vj verso_ Index capitum. || p.
1. GVILIELMI GILBERTI | DE MAGNETE, LIB. I. || p. 240. FINIS. | Errata.
Without any colophon, printer's Mark, or date at end. _Folio. 8 ll. of
preliminary matter._ ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTV, _all ternions, making 120
numbered leaves. One blank leaf at front and one at end. Page 114 at end of
Liber II. blank. A folded woodcut plate inserted between p. 200 and p. 201.
Woodcut initials, headlines and diagrams. All known copies except one have
ink corrections in several pages, particularly pp. 11, 22, 47._
II. (THE STETTIN QUARTO OF 1628.) _Four preliminary unnumbered leaves,
viz._ (1) _Bastard title_ GULIELMI GILBERTI | Tractatus | DE MAGNETE ||
_verso_ blank; (2) _Engraved title._ TRACTATVS | Siue | PHYSIOLOGIA NOVA |
DE MAGNETE, | MAGNETICISQVE CORPO- | RIBVS ET MAGNO MAGNETE | tellure Sex
libris comprehensus | ã | Guilielmo Gilberto Colcestrensi, | Medico
Londinensi | ... Omnia nunc diligenter recognita & emen- | datius quam ante
in lucem edita, aucta & figu- | ris illustrata operâ & studio | Wolfgangi
LOCHMANS I.U.D. | & Mathemati: | Ad calcem libri adjunctus est Index Capi-
| tum Rerum et Verborum locupletissimus | EXCVSVS SEDINI | Typis Gotzianis
Sumptibus | _Ioh: Hallervordij._ | Anno MDC.XXVIII || _verso_ blank; (3)
Præfatio; (4) Amicorum Acclamationes (verses) || _verso_ blank. _Sig._ A Ad
Lectorem Candidum. _Sig._ A2 _verso_ Ad Gravissimum Doctissimum[=q] Virum.
_Sig._ B2 Verborum quorundam interpretatio. _Verso_ blank, followed by
twelve engraved plates numbered I. to XII. _Sig._ B3 is numbered as p. 1,
and begins GVILIELMI GILBERTI | DE MAGNETE. | LIBER I. _Sig._ C _begins as
p. 5_; _Sig._ D as p. 13; and so forth. The collation therefore is: 4 ll.
unnumbered, ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTVXYZAaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiKkLlMm, _all fours.
Pagination ends on_ p. 232, _which has Sig._ H_3 _in error for_ Hh_3,
_being the end of the text. Verso of_ Hh_3 blank. Index capitum _begins
fol._ [Hh_4] _and_ with Index Verborum _continues to verso of_ Mm_3. _Last
leaf_ [Mm_4] _contains Errata, and instructions to binder to place plates:
verso_ blank. _Quarto. Woodcut initials and diagrams. Without any colophon,
printer's Mark, or date at end._ In some copies the engraved title differs,
having the words _Ioh: Hallervordij._ replaced by the word _Authoris_.
{iij} III. (THE STETTIN QUARTO OF 1633.) _Four preliminary unnumbered
leaves_, viz., (1) _title._ Tractatus, sive Physiologia Nova | de |
MAGNETE, | Magneticisq; corporibus & magno | Magnate tellure, sex libris
comprehensus, | a GUILIELMO GILBERTO Colce- | strensi, Medico Londinensi. |
... Omnia nunc diligenter recognita, & emendatius quam ante | in lucem
edita, aucta & figuris illustrata, opera & studio D. | WOLFGANGI LOCHMANS,
I.U.D. | & Mathematici. | Ad calcem libri adiunctus est Index capitum,
Rerum & Verborum | locupletissimus, qui in priore æditione desiderabatur |
SEDINI, | Typis GOTZIANIS. | ANNO M.DC. XXXII. || _verso_ blank; (2)
Præfatio; (3) Amicorum acclamationes (verses) || _verso_ Claudianus de
Magnete (verses); (4) _ibid._ _Sig._ A Ad Lectorem Candidum. _Sig._ A2
_verso_ Ad Gravissimum Doctissimumq. Virum. _Sig._ B2 Verborum quorundam
interpretatio; _verso_ blank. _Sig._ B3 is numbered as p. 1, and begins
GVILIELMI GILBERTI | DE MAGNETE. | LIBER I. _Sig._ C begins as p. 5; _Sig._
D as p. 13; and so forth. The Collation therefore is: 4 _ll._ unnumbered, A
_to_ Mm, _all fours_. Pagination _ends on p. 232, which bears Sig._ H3 _in
error for_ Hh3. _Verso of Sig._ Hh3. Errata. Index capitum _begins_ Hh4,
_and with_ Index Verborum _extends to verso_ of Mm3. _The last leaf_ [Mm4]
_bears the Instructions to binder, with verso_ blank. _There is no
colophon, printer's Mark, or date at end. Quarto. Woodcut initials, and
diagrams. Twelve etched plates of various sizes inserted._
With the exception of the preliminary matter and the Instructions to
binder, the pagination is the same as in the edition of 1628, the pages in
the body of the work being reprinted word for word; though with exceptions.
For example, p. 18 in Ed. 1633 is one line shorter than in Ed. 1628. The
etched plates are entirely different. It has been thought from the
pagination being alike that these two editions were really the same with
different plates, titles, and preliminary matter. But they are really
different. The spacing of the words, letters and lines is different
throughout, and there are different misprints. The watermarks of the paper
also differ.
IV. (THE BERLIN "FACSIMILE" FOLIO OF 1892.) This is a photozincograph
reproduction of the London folio of 1600. It lacks the ink emendations on
pages 11, 22, 47, &c., found in the original, and is wanting also in some
of the asterisks in the margins.
V. (THE AMERICAN TRANSLATION OF 1893.) Frontispiece portrait || _p. i.
title_ WILLIAM GILBERT | OF COLCHESTER, | physician of London, | on the |
Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies, | and on | the great magnet the earth. | A
new Physiology, | demonstrated with many arguments and experiments. | A
translation by | P. Fleury Mottelay, | ... | New York: | John Wiley & Sons,
| 53 East Tenth Street | 1893. || _p. ii_ bears imprint of Ferris Bros.
_Printers_, 326 Pearl Street, New York. || _p. iii._ reduced reproduction
of title of 1600 edition || _verso_ the Gilbert arms || _p. v._
Translator's Preface || _p. ix._ Biographical Memoir || _p. xxxi._ Contents
|| _p. xxxvii._ Address of Edward Wright || _p. xlvii._ Author's Preface.
|| _p. liii._ Explanation of some terms. || pp. 1-358 text of the work. ||
p. 359 reduced reproduction of title of 1628 edition. || p. 360 _ditto_ of
1633 edition. || p. 361 _ditto_ of Gilbert's _De Mundo Nostro_ of 1651. ||
pp. 363 to 368 General Index. || Pages _xxx_, _xlvi_, _lii_, and 362 are
blanks. There are no signatures. Octavo. Diagrams reduced from woodcuts of
the folio of 1600. Some copies bear on title the imprint | London: |
Bernard Quaritch, | 15 Piccadilly. ||
* * * * *
{1} [Illustration]
NOTES ON THE _DE MAGNETE_ OF
DR. WILLIAM GILBERT.
During the work of revising and editing the English translation of _De
Magnete_, many points came up for discussion, requiring critical
consideration, and the examination of the writings of contemporary or
earlier authorities. Discrepancies between the texts of the three known
editions--the London folio of 1600, and the two Stettin quartos of 1628 and
1633 respectively--demanded investigation. Passages relating to astrology,
to pharmacy, to alchemy, to geography, and to navigation, required to be
referred to persons acquainted with the early literature of those branches.
Phrases of non-classical Latin, presenting some obscurity, needed
explanation by scholars of mediæval writings. Descriptions of magnetical
experiments needed to be interpreted by persons whose knowledge of
magnetism enabled them to infer the correct meaning to be assigned to the
words in the text. In this wise a large amount of miscellaneous criticism
has been brought to bear, and forms the basis for the following notes. To
make them available to all students of Gilbert, the references are given to
page and line both of the Latin folio of 1600 and of the English edition of
1900. S. P. T.
[1] _THE GLOSSARY:_
Gilbert's glossary is practically an apology for the introduction into the
Latin language of certain new words, such as the nouns _terrella_,
_versorium_, and _verticitas_, and the adjectival noun _magneticum_, which
either did not exist in classical Latin or had not the technical meaning
which he now assigns to them. His _terrella_, or [Greek: mikrogê], as he
explains in detail on p. 13, is a little magnetic model of the earth, but
in the glossary he simply defines it as _magnes globosus_. Neither
_terrella_ nor _versorium_ appears in any Latin dictionary. No older writer
had used either word, though Peter Peregrinus (_De Magnete_, Augsburg,
1558) had described experiments with globular loadstones, and pivotted
magnetic needles suitable for use in a compass had been known for nearly
three centuries. Yet the pivotted needle was not denominated _versorium_.
Blondo (_De Ventis_, Venice, 1546) does not use the term. Norman (_The Newe
Attractiue_, London, 1581) speaks of the "needle or compasse," and of the
"wyre." Barlowe (_The Navigators Supply_, London, 1597) speaks of {2} the
"flie," or the "wier." The term _versorium_ (literally, the _turn-about_)
is Gilbert's own invention. It was at once adopted into the science, and
appears in the treatises of Cabeus, _Philosophia Magnetica_ (Ferrara,
1629), and of Kircher, _Magnes sive de Arte Magnetica_ (Coloniæ, 1643), and
other writers of the seventeenth century. Curiously enough, its adoption to
denote the pivotted magnetic needle led to the growth of an erroneous
suggestion that the mariners' compass was known to the ancients because of
the occurrence in the writings of Plautus of the term _versoriam_, or
_vorsoriam_. This appears twice as the accusative case of a feminine noun
_versoria_, or _vorsoria_, which was used to denote part of the gear of a
ship used in tacking-about. Forcellini defines _versoria_ as "funiculus quo
extremus veli angulus religatur"; while _versoriam capere_ is equivalent to
"reverti," or (metaphorically) "sententiam mutare." The two passages in
Plautus are:
EUT. Si huc item properes, ut istuc properas, facias rectius,
Huc secundus ventus nunc est; cape modo vorsoriam;
Hic Favonius serenu'st, istic Auster imbricus:
Hic facit tranquillitatem, iste omnes fluctus conciet.
(in _Mercat._ Act. V., sc. 2.)
CHARM. Stasime, fac te propere celerem recipe te ad dominum domum;
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cape vorsoriam
Recipe te ad herum.
(in _Trinum._ Act. IV., sc. 3.)
The word _magneticum_ is also of Gilbert's own coinage, as a noun; as an
adjective it had been certainly used before, at least in its English form,
_magneticall_, which appears on the title-page of William Borough's
_Discourse of the Variation of the Compasse_ (London, 1596). Gilbert does
not use anywhere the noun _magnetismus_, _magnetism_. The first use of that
noun occurs in William Barlowe's _Magneticall Aduertisements_ (1616), in
the _Epistle Dedicatorie_, wherein, when speaking of Dr. Gilbert, he says
"vnto whom I communicated what I had obserued of my selfe, and what I had
built vpon his foundation of the _Magnetisme_ of the earth." Gilbert speaks
of the _virtus magnetica_, or _vis magnetica_; indeed, he has a rich
vocabulary of terms, using, beside _virtus_ and _vis_, _vires_, _robur_,
_potestas_, _potentia_, _efficientia_, and _vigor_ for that which we should
now call _magnetism_ or _the magnetic forces_. Nor does he use the verb
_magnetisare_, or its participle, _magnetisatus_: he speaks of _ferrum
tactum_, or of _ferrum excitatum a magnete_. In spite of certain
obscurities which occur in places in his work, he certainly shows a nice
appreciation of words and their use, and a knowledge of style. One finds
occasionally direct quotations from, and overt references to, the classic
authors, as in the references to Plato and Aristotle on page 1, and in the
passage from the Georgics of Vergil on p. 21. But here and there one finds
other traces of unmistakable scholarship, as in the reference to goat's
wool on p. 35, or in the use, on p. 210, of the word _perplacet_, which
occurs in the letter of Cicero _ad Atticum_, or in that of _commonstrabit_,
occurring on p. 203, and found only in Cicero, Terence and Plautus; whilst
the phrase on p. 3, in which Gilbert rallies the smatterers on having lost
both their oil and their pains, has a delightfully classical echo. {3} The
term _orbis virtutis_, defined by Gilbert in the glossary, and illustrated
by the cuts on pages 76, 77, and 96, might be effectively translated by
_sphere of influence_, or _orbit within which there is sensible
attraction_. It has been preferred, however, to translate it literally as
the _orbe of virtue_, or _orbe of magnetick virtue_. This choice has been
determined by the desire to adopt such an English phrase as Gilbert would
himself have used had he been writing English. T. Hood, writing in 1592 in
his book _The Vse of both the Globes_, in using the word _orbe_, says that
the word _globe_ signifies a solid body, while a _sphere_ is hollow, like
two "dishes joyned by the brimme"; "The Latines properly call _Orbis_ an
Orbe"; "Moreouer the word _Sphaera_ signifieth that instrument made of
brasen hoopes (wee call it commonly a ringed Sphere) wherewith the
Astronomers deliuer unto the nouices of that Science the vnderstanding of
things which they imagine in the heauen." Further, Dr. Marke Ridley in his
_Treatise of Magneticall Bodies and Motions_ (1613), has a chapter (XIIII)
"Of the distance and Orbe of the Magnets vertue," throughout which the term
Orbe is retained. Sir Thomas Browne also writes of "the orb of their
activities."
The word _Coitio_, used by Gilbert for the mutual force between magnet and
iron, has been retained in its English form, _coition_. Gilbert evidently
adopted this term after much thought. The Newtonian conception of action
and reaction being necessarily equal had not dawned upon the mediæval
philosophers. The term _attraction_ had been used in a limited sense to
connote an action in which a force was conceived of as being exerted on one
side only. Diogenes of Apollonia, Alexander Aphrodiseus, Democritus, and
others, conceived the magnet to draw at the iron without the iron in any
way contributing to that action. Saint Basil specially affirms that the
magnet is not drawn by iron. On the other hand, Albertus Magnus had
conceived the idea that the iron sought the magnet by a one-sided effort in
which the magnet took no part. Gilbert had the wit to discern that the
action was mutual, and to mark the new conception he adopted the new term,
and defined it as it stands in his glossary. It is "a concourse or
concordancy of both," and to emphasize his meaning he adds, "not as if
there were an [Greek: helktikê dunamis] but a [Greek: sundromê]" not a
tractile power, but a running together. The adjective [Greek: helktikê] is
obviously related to the verb [Greek: helkô], I draw: but its meaning
puzzled the subsequent editors of the text, for in the two Stettin editions
of 1628 and 1633, the phrase appears in the respective forms of [Greek:
helêtikê dunamis] and [Greek: helkustikê dunamis]. In Creech's English
version of Lucretius (edition of 1722, p. 72a, in the footnote) is the
commentary "Galen, disputing against Epicurus, uses the term [Greek:
helkein], which seems likewise too violent." It may be noted that the same
verb occurs in the passage from the _Io_ of Plato quoted below. The term
[Greek: sundromê] applied by Gilbert to explain his term _Coitio_ is used
by Diodorus for the mutual onset of two hostile forces.
A picturesque sentence from Sir Thomas Browne's _Pseudodoxia Epidemica_
(London, 1650, p. 51) sets the matter succinctly forth. "If in two skiffs
of cork, a Loadstone and Steel be placed within the orb of their
activities, the one doth not move the other standing still, but both hoist
sayle and steer unto each other; so that if the Loadstone attract, the
Steel hath also its attraction; for in this action the Alliency is
reciprocall, which jointly felt, they mutually approach and run into each
others arms." {4} The page and line references given in these notes are in
all cases first to the Latin edition of 1600, and secondly to the English
edition of 1900.
[2] PAGE 1, LINE 28. Page 1, line 28. _Plato in Ione._--The passage in the
_Io_ of Plato is in chap. v. Socrates addressing the poet Io tells him that
his facility in reciting Homer is not really an art: [Greek: theia de
dunamis, hê se kinei hôsper en têi lithôi, hên Euripidês men Magnêtin
ônomasen, hoi de polloi Hêrakleian. kai gar autê hê lithos ou monon autous
tous daktulious agei tous sidêrous, alla kai dunamin entithêsi tois
daktuliois, ôst au dunasthai tautou touto poiein, hoper hê lithos, allous
agein daktulious, hôst' enioth' hormathos makros panu sidêriôn kai
daktuliôn ex allêlôn êrtêtai pasi de toutois ex ekeinês tês lithou hê
dunamis anêrtêtai.] The idea is that as the loadstone in attracting an iron
ring will make it into a magnet, which can in turn act magnetically on
another ring, and this on yet another, so the inspiration of the Muse is
transferred to the poet, who in turn hands on the inspiration through the
reciter to the listener. After further expanding the same idea of the
transference of influence, Socrates again mentions the magnet (chap. vii.):
[Greek: Oisth' oun hoti outos estin ho theatês tôn daktuliôn ho eschatos,
hôn egô elegon hupo tês Hêrakleiôtidos lithou ap' allêlôn tên dunamin
lambanein, ho de mesos su ho rhapsôdos kai hupokritês, ho de prôtos autos
ho poiêtês? ho de theos dia pantôn toutôn helkei tên psuchên hopoi an
boulêtai tôn anthrôpôn, k.t.l.] (Edition Didot of 1856, vol. i., p. 391; or
Stephanus, p. 533 D).
There is another reference in Plato to the magnet, namely, in the _Timæus_
(p. 240, vol. ii., Edit. citat.). See the Note to p. 61.
The reference by Euripides to the magnet occurs in the lost play of Oeneus,
in a fragment preserved by Suidas. See _Fragmenta Euripidis_ (Ed. Didot,
1846, p. 757, or Nauck's edition, No. 567).
[Greek: hôs Euripidês en Oinei; tas brotôn gnômas skopôn, hôste Magnêtis
lithos tên doxan helkei kai methistêsin palin.]
[3] PAGE 1, LINE 28. Page 1, line 29. The brief passage from Aristotle's
_De Anima_ referring to Thales is quoted by Gilbert himself at the bottom
of p. 11.
[4] PAGE 2, LINE 1. Page 1, line 29. The edition of 1628 inserts commas
between Theophrastus and Lesbius, and between Julius and Solinus, as though
these were four persons instead of two.
[5] PAGE 2, LINE 8. Page 2, line 5. _si allio magnes illitus fuerit, aut si
adamas fuerit_. An excellent version of this myth is to be found in Julius
Solinus, _Polyhistor, De Memorabilibus_, chap. lxiv., of which the English
version of 1587, by A. Golding, runs thus: "The Diamonde will not suffer
the Lodestone to drawe yron unto him: or if y^e Lodestone haue alreadie
drawne a peece of yron to it, the Diamond snatcheth and pulleth away as hys
bootye whatsoever the Lodestone hath taken hold of." Saint Augustine
repeats the diamond myth in his _De Civitate Dei_, lib. xxi. Baptista Porta
says (p. 211 of the English version of 1658): "It is a common Opinion
amongst Sea-men, That Onyons and Garlick are at odds with the Loadstone:
and Steers-men, and such as tend the Mariners Card are forbid to eat Onyons
or Garlick, lest they make the Index of the Poles drunk. But when I tried
all these things, found them to be false: for not onely breathing and
belching upon the Loadstone after eating of Garlick, did not stop its
vertues: but when it was all anoynted over with the juice of Garlick, it
did perform its office as well as if it had never been touched with it: and
I could observe almost not the least difference, lest I should make void
the endeavours of the Ancients. {5} And again, When I enquired of Marines,
whether it were so, that they were forbid to eat Onyons and Garlick for
that reason; they said, they were old Wives fables, and things ridiculous;
and that Sea-men would sooner lose their lives, then abstain from eating
Onyons and Garlick."
The fables respecting the antipathy of garlick and of the diamond to the
operation of the magnet, although already discredited by Ruellius and by
Porta, died hard. In spite of the exposure and denunciations of
Gilbert--compare p. 32--these tales were oft repeated during the succeeding
century. In the appendix to Sir Hugh Plat's _Jewel House of Art and
Nature_, in the edition of 1653, by D. B. Gent, it is stated there (p.
218): "The Loadstone which ... hath an admirable vertue not onely to draw
Iron to it self, but also to make any Iron upon which it is rubbed to draw
iron also, it is written notwithstanding, that being rubbed with the juyce
of Garlick, it loseth that vertue, and cannot then draw iron, as likewise
if a Diamond be layed close unto it."
Pliny wrote of the alleged antipathy between diamond and goat's blood. The
passage as quoted from the English version of Pliny's _Natural Historie of
the World_, translated by Philemon Holland (London, 1601, p. 610, chap,
iv.), runs: "But I would gladly know whose invention this might be to soake
the Diamond in Goats bloud, whose head devised it first, or rather by what
chance was it found out and knowne? What conjecture should lead a man to
make an experiment of such a singular and admirable secret, especially in a
goat, the filthiest beast ... in the whole world? Certes I must ascribe
both this invention and all such like to the might and beneficence together
of the divine powers: neither are we to argue and reason how and why Nature
hath done this or that? Sufficient is it that her will was so, and thus she
would have it."
[6] PAGE 2, LINE 22. Page 2, line 22. _Machometis sacellum._ Gilbert
credits Matthiolus (the well-known herbalist and commentator on
Dioscorides) with producing the fable as to Mahomet's coffin being
suspended in the air by a magnet. Sir Richard Burton, in his famous
pilgrimage to El Medïnah in 1855, effectually disposed of this myth. The
reputed sarcophagus rests simply on bricks on the floor. But it had long
been known that aerial suspension, even of the lightest iron object, in the
air, without contact above or below, was impossible by any magnetic agency.
In Barlowe's _Magneticall Aduertisements_ (London, 1616, p. 45) is the
following: "As for the Turkes _Mahomet_, hanging in the ayer with his yron
chest it is a most grosse untruth, and utterly impossible it is for any
thing to hange in the ayer by any _magneticall_ power, but that either it
must touch the stone it selfe, or else some intermediate body, that
hindreth it from comming to the stone (like as before I haue shewed) or
else some stay below to keepe it from ascending, as some small wier that
may scantly bee seene or perceived."
[7] PAGE 2, LINE 26. Page 2, line 26. _Arsinoes templum._--The account in
Pliny of the magnetic suspension of the statue of Arsinoe in the temple
built by Chinocrates is given as follows in the English version (London,
1601) of Philemon Holland (p. 515): "And here I cannot chuse but acquaint
you with the singular invention of that great architect and master deviser,
of Alexandria in Ægypt _Dinocrates_, who began to make the arched roufe of
the temple of _Arsinoe_ all of Magnet or this Loadstone, to the end, that
within that temple the statue of the said princesse made of yron, might
seeme to hang in the aire by nothing. But prevented he was by death {6}
before hee could finish his worke, like as king _Ptolomæe_ also, who
ordained that temple to be built in the honour of the said _Arsinoe_ his
sister."
There are a number of similar myths in Ausonius, Claudian, and Cassiodorus,
and in the writings of later ecclesiastical historians, such as Rusinus and
Prosper Aquitanus. The very meagre accounts they have left, and the
scattered references to the reputed magical powers of the loadstone,
suggest that there existed amongst the primitive religions of mankind a
_magnet-worship_, of which these records are traces.
[8] PAGE 2, LINE 37. Page 2, line 41. _Brasevolus_ [or _Brasavola_].--The
list of authorities here cited consists mostly of well-known mediæval
writers on _materia medica_ or on minerals: the last on the list, _Hannibal
Rosetius Calaber_, has not been identified.
The following are the references in the order named by Gilbert:
Antonio Musa Brasavola. _Examen omnium simplicium medicamentorum_, Section
447 (Lugdun., 1537).
Joannes Baptista Montanus. _Metaphrasis summaria eorum quæ ad
medicamentorum doctrinà attinet_ (Augustæ Rheticæ, 1551).
Amatus Lusitanus. _Amati Lusitani in Dioscoridis Anazarbei de materia
medica libros quinque_ (Venet., 1557, p. 507).
Oribasius. _Oribasii Sardiani ad Eunapium libri 4 quibus ... facultates
simplicium ... continentur_ (Venet., 1558).
Aetius Amidenus. _Aetii Amideni Librorum medicinalium ... libri octo nunc
primum in lucem editi_ (Greek text, Aldine edition, Venet., 1534). A Latin
edition appeared in Basel, 1535. See also his _tetrabiblos ex veteribus
medicinæ_ (Basil., 1542).
Avicenna (Ibn Sinâ). _Canona Medicinæ_ (Venice, 1486), liber ii., cap. 474.
Serapio Mauritanus (Yuhanná Ibn Sarapion). In hoc volumine continentur ...
_Ioan. Sarapionis Arabis de Simplicibus Medicinis opus præclarum et ingens
..._ (edited by Brunfels, Argentorati, 1531, p. 260).
Hali Abbas ('Alí Ibn Al 'Abb[=a]s). _Liber totius medicinæ necessaria
c[=o]tinens ... quem Haly filius Abbas edidit ... et a Stephano ex arabica
lingua reductus_ (Lugd., 1523, p. 176 _verso_).
Santes de Ardoniis (or Ardoynis). _Incipit liber de venenis quem magister
santes de ardoynis ... edere cepit venetiis die octauo nou[=e]bris_, 1424
(Venet., 1492).
Petrus Apponensis (or Petrus de Abano). The loadstone is referred to in two
works by this author.
(1) _Conciliator differentiarum philosophorum: et precipue medicorum
clarissimi viri Petri de Abano Patauini feliciter incipit_ (Venet., 1496,
p. 72, _verso_, Quæstio LI.).
(2) _Tractatus de Venenis_ (Roma, 1490, cap. xi.).
Marcellus (called Marcellus Empiricus). _De Medicamentis_, in the volume
_Medici antiqui omnes_ (Venet., 1547, p. 89).
Arnaldus (Arnaldus de Villa Nova). _Incipit Tractatus de virtutibus
herbarum_ (Venet., 1499). See also _Arnaldi Villanovani Opera omnia_
(Basil., 1585).
Marbodeus Gallus. _Marbodei Galli poetae vetustissimi de lapidibus
pretiosis Enchiridion_ (Friburgi, 1530 [1531], p. 41).
Albertus Magnus. _De Mineralibus et rebus metallicis_ (Venet., 1542, lib.
ii., _de lapidibus preciosis_, p. 192). There is a reference to the
loadstone {7} also in a work attributed falsely to Albertus, but now
ascribed to Henricus de Saxonia, _De virtutibus herbarum, de virtutibus
lapidum_, etc. (Rouen, 1500, and subsequent editions). An English version,
_The Secrets of Albertus Magnus of the vertues of hearbs stones and
certaine beasts_ was publisht in London in 1617.
Matthæus Silvaticus. _Pandectæ Medicinæ_ (Lugduni, 1541, cap. 446).
Hermolaus Barbarus. His work, _Hermolai Barbari Patritii Veneti et
Aqvileiensis patriarchæ Corollarii Libri quinque ..._ Venet., 1516, is an
early herbal. On p. 103 are to be found descriptions of _lapis gagatis_ and
_lapis magnes_. The latter is mostly taken from Pliny, and mentions the
alleged theamedes, and the myth of the floating statue.
Camillus Leonardus. _Speculum Lapidum_ (Venet., 1502, fol. xxxviii.). An
English translation, _The Mirror of Stones_, appeared in London in 1750.
Cornelius Agrippa. _Henrici Cor. Agrippæ ab Nettesheym ... De Occulta
Philosophia Libri Tres_ (Antv., 1531). The English version _Of the Vanitie
and uncertaintie of Artes_ was publisht in London, 1569, and again later.
Fallopius (Gabriellus). _G. F. de simplicibus medicamentis purgantibus
tractatus_ (Venet., 1566). See also his _Tractatus de compositione
medicamentorum_ (Venet., 1570).
Johannes Langius. _Epistolarum medicinalium volumen tripartitum_ (Paris,
1589, p. 792).
Cardinalis Cusanus (Nicolas Khrypffs, Cardinal de Cusa). _Nicolai Cusani de
staticis experimentis dialogus_ (Argentorati, 1550). The English edition,
entitled _The Idiot in four books_, is dated London, 1650.
[9] PAGE 3, LINE 1. Page 2, line 42. _Marcellus_.--"Marcellus Empiricus,
médecin de Théodose-le-Grand, dit que l'aimant, appelé _antiphyson_, attire
et repousse le fer." (Klaproth, _Sur l'invention de la boussole_, 1834, p.
12.) The passage from Marcellus runs: "Magnetes lapis, qui antiphyson
dicitur, qui ferrum trahit et abjicit, et magnetes lapis qui sanguinem
emittit et ferrum ad se trahit, collo alligati aut circa caput dolori
capitis medentur." (Marcellus, _de Medicamentis_: in the volume _Medici
antiqui omnes, qui latinis literis morborum genera persecuti sunt_. Venet.,
1547, p. 89.)
[10] PAGE 3, LINE 11. Page 3, line 9. _Thomas Erastus_.--The work in
question is _Dispvtationvm de Medicina nova Philippi Paracelsi, Pars Prima:
in qua quæ de remediis svperstitiosis & Magicis curationibus ille prodidit,
præcipuè examinantur à Thoma Erasto in Schola Heydebergensi, professore_.
(Basiliæ, 1572. Parts 2 and 3 appeared the same year, and Part 4 in 1573.)
Gilbert had no more love for Paracelsus than for Albertus Magnus or others
of the magic-mongers. Indeed the few passages in Paracelsus on the magnet
are sorry stuff. They will mostly be found in the seventh volume of his
collected works (_Opera omnia_, Frankfurt, 1603). A sample may be taken
from the English work publisht in London, 1650, with the title: _Of the
Nature of Things, Nine Books; written by Philipp Theophrastus of Hohenheim,
called Paracelsvs_.
"For any Loadstone that Mercury hath but touched, or which hath been
smeered with Mercuriall oyle, or only put into Mercury will never draw Iron
more" (p. 23).
"The life of the Loadstone is the spirit of Iron; which may bee extracted,
and taken away with spirit of Wine" (p. 32).
[11] PAGE 3, LINE 13. Page 3, line 11. _Encelius_ (or _Entzelt_, Christoph)
{8} wrote a work publisht in 1551 at Frankfurt, with the title _De re
metallica, hoc est, de origine, varietate, et natura corporum metallicorum,
lapidum, gemmarum, atque aliarum quæ ex fodinis eruuntur, rerum, ad
medicine usum deservientium, libri iii_. This is written in a singular
medley of Latin and German. Gilbert undoubtedly took from it many of his
ideas about the properties of metals. See the note to p. 27 on _plumbum
album_.
[12] PAGE 3, LINE 20. Page 3, line 21. _Thomas Aquinas._--The reference is
to his commentaries upon the _Physica_ of Aristotle. The passage will be
found on p. 96 _bis_ of the Giunta edition (Venet., 1539). The essential
part is quoted by Gilbert himself on p. 64.
[13] PAGE 3, LINE 39. Page 3, line 45. _pyxidem._--The word _pyxis_, which
occurs here, and in the next sentence as _pyxidem nauticam_, is translated
_compass_. Eleven lines lower occurs the term _nautica pyxidula_. This
latter word, literally the "little compass," certainly refers to the
portable compass used at sea. Compare several passages in Book IV. where a
contrasting use is made of these terms; for example, on pp. 177 and 202.
Calcagninus, _De re nautica_, uses the term _pyxidecula_ for an instrument
which he describes as "vitro intecta." On p. 152, line 9, Gilbert uses the
non-classical noun _compassus_, "boreale lilium compassi (quod Boream
respicit)," and again on p. 178, line 3.
[14] PAGE 4, LINE 2. Page 4, line 2. _Melphitani._--The inhabitants of
Amalfi in the kingdom of Naples. The claim of the discovery or invention of
the mariners' compass in the year 1302 by one Joannes Goia, or Gioia, also
named as Flavio Goia, has been much disputed. In Guthrie's _New System of
Modern Geography_ (London, 1792, p. 1036), in the Chronology, is set down
for the year 1302:
"The mariner's compass invented, or improved by Givia, of Naples. The
flower de luce, the arms of the Duke of Anjou, then King of Naples, was
placed by him at the point of the needle, in compliment to that prince."
In 1808 an elaborate treatise was printed at Naples, by Flaminius Venanson
with the title, _De l'invention de la Boussole Nautique_. Venanson, who
cites many authorities, endeavours to prove that if Gioia did not discover
magnetic polarity he at least invented the compass, that is to say, he
pivotted the magnetic needle and placed it in a box, with a card affixed
above it divided into sixteen parts bearing the names of the sixteen
principal winds. He alleges in proof that the compass-card is emblazoned in
the armorial bearings of the city of Amalfi. This view was combatted in the
famous letter of Klaproth to Humboldt publisht in Paris in 1834. He shows
that the use of the magnetized needle was known in Europe toward the end of
the twelfth century; that the Chinese knew of it and used it for finding
the way on land still earlier; that there is no compass-card in the arms of
the city of Amalfi; but he concedes that Gioia may have improved the
compass in 1302 by adding the wind-rose card. The most recent contributions
to the question are a pamphlet by Signorelli, _Sull' invenzione della
Bussola nautica, ragionamento di Pietro Napoli Signorelli, segretario
perpetuo della Società Pontaniana; letto nella seduta del 30 settembre
1860_; Matteo Camera's _Memorie Storico-diplomatiche dell' antica città e
ducato di Amalfi_ (Salerno, 1876); and Admiral Luigi Fincati's work _Il
Magnete, la Calamita, e la Bussola_ (Roma, 1878). An older mention of Gioia
is to be found in Blundevile's _Exercises_ (3rd edition, 1606, pp.
257-258). See also Crescentio _della Nautica Mediterranea_, (Roma, 1607, p.
253), and Azuni, _Dissertazione sull' origine della bussola nautica_
(Venezia, 1797). {9}
There appears to be a slip in Gilbert's reference to Andrea Doria, as he
has confounded the town of Amalfi in Principato Citra with Melfi in
Basilicata.
One of the sources relied upon by historians for ascribing this origin of
the compass is the _Compendia dell' Istoria del Regno di Napoli_, of
Collenuccio (Venet., MDXCI.), p. 5.
"Nè in questo tacerò Amalfi, picciola terra, & capo della costa di
Picentia, alia quale tutti quelli, che'l mar caualcano, vfficiosamente
eterno gratie debono referire, essendo prima in quella terra trovato l'vso,
& l'artificio della calamita, & del bussolo, col quale i nauiganti, la
stella Tramontana infallibilmente mirando, direzzano il lor corso, si come
è publica fama, & gli Amalfitani si gloriano, nè senza ragione dalli piu si
crede, essendo cosa certa, che gli antichi tale instromento non hebbero; nè
essendo mai in tutto falso quello, che in molto tempo è da molti si
diuolga."
Another account is to be found in the _Historiarum sui temporis_, etc., of
Paulus Jovius (Florent., 1552), tom. ii., cap. 25, p. 42.
"Quum essem apud Philippum superuenit Ioachinus Leuantius Ligur a Lotrechio
missus, qui deposceret captiuos; sed ille negauit se daturum, quando eos ad
ipsum Andream Auriam ammirantem deducendos esse iudicaret. Vgonis uerò
cadauer, ut illudentium Barbarorum contumeliis eriperetur, ad Amalphim
urbem delatum est, in ædeque Andreæ apostoli, tumultuariis exequiis
tumulatum. In hac urbe citriorum & medicorum odoratis nemoribus æquè
peramoena & celebri, Magnetis usum nauigantibus hodie familiarem &
necessarium, adinuentum suisse incolæ asserunt."
Flavius Blondus, whom Gilbert cites, gives the following reference, in
which Gioia's name is not mentioned, in the section upon Campania Felix of
his Italy (_Blondi Flavii Forlinensis ... Italia Illustrata_, Basiliæ,
1531, p. 420).
"Sed fama est qua Amalphitanos audiuimus gloriari, magnetis usum, cuius
adminiculo nauigantes ad arcton diriguntur, Amalphi suisse inuentum,
quicquid uero habeat in ea re ueritas, certû est id noctu nauigandi
auxilium priscis omnino suisse incognitum."
There is a further reference to the alleged Amalphian in Caelius
Calcagninus _De re nautica commentatio_. (_See Thesaurus Græcarum
Antiquitatum_, 1697, vol. xi., p. 761.) On the other hand Baptista Porta,
who wrote in Naples in 1558 (_Magia Naturalis_) distinctly sets aside the
claim as baseless.
William Barlowe, in _The Navigators Supply_ (1597, p. A3), says: "Who was
the first inuentor of this Instrument miraculous, and endued, as it were,
with life, can hardly be found. The lame tale of one _Flauius_ at
_Amelphis_, in the kingdome of _Naples_, for to haue deuised it, is of very
slender probabilitie. _Pandulph Collenutius_ writing the Neapolitane
historie telleth vs, that they of _Amelphis_ say, it is a common opinion
there, that it was first found out among them. But _Polidore Virgil_, who
searched most diligently for the Inuentors of things, could neuer heare of
this opinion (yet himselfe being an Italian) and as he confesseth in the
later ende of his third booke _de inventoribus rerum_, could neuer
vnderstand anything concerning the first inuention of this instrument."
According to Park Benjamin (_Intellectual Rise in Electricity_, p. 146) the
use of the pivotted compass arose and spread not from Amalfi at the hands
of Italians in the fourteenth century, but from Wisbuy, at the hands of the
Finns, in the middle of the twelfth century. {10}
Hakewill (_An Apologie or Declaration of the Power and Providence of God_,
London, 1673, pp. 284-285) says:
"But _Blondus_, who is therein followed by _Pancirollus_, both _Italians_,
will not haue _Italy_ loose the praise thereof, telling vs that about 300
yeares agoe it was found out at Malphis or Melphis, a Citty in the Kingdome
of _Naples_ in the _Province_ of _Campania_, now called _Terra di
Lovorador_. But for the Author of it, the one names him not, and the other
assures vs, he is not knowne: yet _Salmuth_ out of _Ciezus & Gomara_
confidently christens him with the name of _Flavius_, and so doth _Du
Bartas_ in those excellent verses of his touching this subject.
"'W' are not to _Ceres_ so much bound for bread,
Neither to _Bacchus_ for his clusters red,
As Signior _Flavio_ to thy witty tryall,
For first inventing of the Sea-mans dyall,
Th' vse of the needle turning in the same,
Divine device, O admirable frame!'
"It may well be then that _Flavius_ the _Melvitan_ was the first inventor
of guiding the ship by the turning of the needle to the _North_: but some
_German_ afterwards added to the _Compasse_ the 32 points of the winde in
his owne language, whence other Nations haue since borrowed it."
[15] PAGE 4, LINE 14. Page 4, line 14. _Paulum Venetum_.--The reference is
to Marco Polo. He returned in 1295 from his famous voyage to Cathay. But
the oft-repeated tale that he first introduced the knowledge of the compass
into Europe on his return is disposed of by several well-established facts.
Klaproth (_op. citat._, p. 57) adduces a mention of its use in 1240 in the
Eastern Mediterranean, recorded in a work written in 1242 by Bailak of
Kibdjak. And the passages in the Iceland Chronicle, and in Alexander of
Neckham are still earlier.
[16] PAGE 4, LINE 17. Page 4, line 17. _Goropius_. See _Hispanica Ioannis
Goropii Becani_ (Plantin edition, Antv., 1580), p. 29. This is a discussion
of the etymologies of the names of the points of the compass: but is quite
unauthoritative.
[17] PAGE 4, LINE 23. Page 4, line 26. _Paruaim_.--Respecting this
reference, Sir Philip Magnus has kindly furnisht the following note. A clue
to the meaning of _Parvaim_, which should be written in English letters
with a _v_, not a _u_, will be found in _2 Chronicles_, iii. 6. In the
verse quoted the author speaks of gold as the gold of Parvaim, [Hebrew:
WHAZAHAB ZHAB PARWAYIM], and [Hebrew: PRWYM] Parvaim is taken as a
gold-producing region. It is regarded by some as the same as Ophir. The
word is supposed to be cognate with a Sanskrit word _pûrva_ signifying
"prior, anterior, oriental." There is nothing in the root indicating gold.
A form similar to Parvaim, and also a proper name, is Sepharvaim, found in
_2 Kings_, xix. 13, and in _Isaiah_, xxxvii. 13, and supposed to be the
name of a city in Assyria.
[18] PAGE 4, LINE 35. Page 4, line 41. Cabot's observation of the variation
of the compass is narrated in the _Geografia_ of Livio Sanuto (Vinegia,
1588, lib. i., fol. 2). See also Fournier's _Hydrographie_, lib. xi., cap.
10.
[19] PAGE 4, LINE 36. Page 4, line 42. _Gonzalus Oviedus_.--The reference
is to Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdès. _Summario de la Historia
general y natural de las Indias occidentales_, 1525, p. 48, where the
author speaks of the crossing of "la linea del Diametro, donde las Agujas
hacen la {11} diferencia del Nordestear, ò Noroestear, que es el parage de
las Islas de los Açores."
[20] PAGE 5, LINE 8. Page 5, line 11. _Petri cujusdam Peregrini_.--This
opusculum is the famous letter of Peter Peregrinus written in 1269, of
which some twenty manuscript copies exist in various libraries in Oxford,
Rome, Paris, etc., and of which the oldest printed edition is that of 1558
(Augsburg). See also Libri, _Histoire des Sciences Mathématiques_ (1838);
Bertelli in Boncompagni's _Bull. d. Bibliogr._ T. I. and T. IV. (1868 and
1871), and Hellmann's _Rara Magnetica_ (1898). A summary of the contents of
Peregrinus's book will be found in Park Benjamin's _Intellectual Rise in
Electricity_ (1895), pp. 164-185.
[21] PAGE 5, LINE 12. Page 5, line 15. _Johannes Taisner
Hannonius._--Taisnier, or Taysnier, of Hainault, was a plagiarist who took
most of the treatise of Peregrinus and publisht it in his _Opusculum... de
Natura Magnetis_ (Coloniæ, 1562), of which an English translation by
Richard Eden was printed by R. Jugge in 1579.
[22] PAGE 5, LINE 18. Page 5, line 23. _Collegium Conimbricense_.--This is
a reference to the commentaries on Aristotle by the Jesuits of Coimbra. The
work is _Colegio de Coimbra da Companhia de Jesu, Cursus Conimbricensis in
Octo libros Physicorum_ (Coloniæ, sumptibus Lazari Ratzneri, 1599). Other
editions: Lugd. 1594; and Colon., 1596. The later edition of 1609, in the
British Museum, has the title _Commentariorum Collegii Conimbricensis in
octo libros physicorum_.
[23] PAGE 5, LINE 25. Page 5, line 31. _Martinus Cortesius_.--His _Arte de
Navegar_ (Sevilla, 1556) went through various editions in Spanish, Italian,
and English. Eden's translation was publisht 1561, and again in 1609.
[24] PAGE 5, LINE 26. Page 5, line 33. _Bessardus_.--Toussaincte de Bessard
wrote a treatise, _Dialogue de la Longitude_ (Rouen, 1574), which gives
some useful notes of nautical practice, and of the French construction of
the compass. Speaking of the needle he says: "Elle ne tire pas au pole du
monde: ains regarde, au Pole du Zodiaque, comme il sera discoursu, cy
apres" (p. 34). On p. 50 he speaks of "l'aiguille Aymantine." On p. 108 he
refers to Mercator's _Carte Générale_, and denies the existence of the
alleged loadstone rock. On p. 15 he gives the most naïve etymologies for
the terms used: thus he assigns as the derivation of _Sud_ the Latin
_sudor_, because the south is hot, and as that of _Ouest_ that it comes
from _Ou_ and _Est_. "Come, qui diroit, Ou est-il? à scauoir le Soleil, qui
estoit nagueres sur la terre."
[25] PAGE 5, LINE 28. Page 5, line 35. _Jacobus Severtius_.--Jacques
Severt, whose work, _De Orbis Catoptrici sev mapparvm mvndi principiis
descriptione ac usu libri tres_ (Paris, 1598), would have probably lapsed
into obscurity, but being just newly publisht was mentioned by Gilbert for
its follies.
[26] PAGE 5, LINE 30. Page 5, line 38. _Robertus Norman_.--Author of the
rare volume _The Newe Attractiue_, publisht in London, 1581, and several
times reprinted. This work contains an account of Norman's discovery of the
Dip of the magnetic needle, and of his investigation of it by means of the
Dipping-needle, which he invented. He was a compassmaker of the port of
London, and lived at Limehouse.
[27] PAGE 5, LINE 32. Page 5, line 40. _Franciscus Maurolycus_.--The work
to which the myth of the magnetic mountains is thus credited is, _D.
Francisci Abbatis Messanensis Opuscula Mathematica_, etc. (Venet, MDLXXV,
p. 122a). "Sed cur sagitta, vel obelus à vero Septentrione, quandoque ad
dextram, {12} quandoque ad sinistram declinat? An quia sagitta, sicut
magnes (cuius est simia) non verum Septentrionem, sed insulam quandam (quam
Olaus Magnus Gothus in sua geographia vocat insulam magnetum) semper ex
natura inspicere cogitur?"
[28] PAGE 5, LINE 35. Page 5, line 43. _Olaus Magnus_.--The famous
Archbishop of Upsala, who wrote the history of the northern nations
(_Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus_), of which the best edition,
illustrated with many woodcuts, appeared in Rome in 1555. An English
edition entitled _A Compendious History of the Goths, Swedes, and Vandals,
and Other Northern Nations_ was printed in London in 1658; but it is much
abbreviated and has none of the quaint woodcuts. The reference on p. 5
appears to be to the following passage on p. 409 (ed. 1555). "Demum in
suppolaribus insulis magnetum montes reperiuntur, quorum fragmentis ligna
fagina certo tempore applicata, in saxeam duritiem, et vim attractivam
convertuntur," or the following on p. 89: "Magnetes enim in extremo
Septentrionis veluti montes, unde nautica directio constat, reperiuntur:
quorum etiam magnetum tam vehemens est operatio, ut certis lignis fagineis
conjuncti, ea vertunt in sui duritiem, & naturam attractivam." On p. 343 is
a woodcut depicting the penalties inflicted by the naval laws upon any one
who should maliciously tamper with the compass or the loadstone, "qui
malitiosè nauticum gnomonem, aut compassum, & præcipuè portionem magnetis,
unde omnium directio dependet, falsaverit." He was to be pinned to the mast
by a dagger thrust through his hand. It will be noted that the ships
carried both a compass, and a piece of loadstone wherewith to stroke the
needle.
There is in the Basel edition of this work, 1567, a note _ad lectorem_, on
the margin of Carta 16a, as follows:
"Insula 30 milliarium in longitud. & latitud. Polo arctico subjecta.
"Vltra quam directorium nauticum bossolo dic[~u] uires amittit: propterea
quòd ilia insula plena est magnetum."
This myth of the magnetic mountains, probably originating with Nicander,
appears, possibly from an independent source, in the East, in China, and in
the tales of the Arabian Nights.
Ptolemy gives the following account in his _Geographia_ (lib. vii., cap.
2):
[Greek: Pherontai de kai allai sunecheis deka nêsoi kaloumenai Maniolai en
ais phasi ta sidêrous echonta hêlous ploia katechesthai, mêpote tês
Hêrikleias lithou peri autas genomenês, kai dia touto epiourois
naupêgeisthai.] Some editions omit the name of the Manioles from the
passage.
No two authorities agree as to the place of these alleged magnetic
mountains. Some place them in the Red Sea. Fracastorio, _De Sympathia et
Antipathia_, cap. 7 (_Opera omnia_, Giunta edition, 1574, p. 63), gives the
following reason for the variation of the compass:
"Nos igitur diligentius rem considerãtes dicimus causam, [~q] perpendiculum
illud ad polum vertatur, esse montes ferri, & magnetis, qui sub polo sunt,
vt negociatores affirmant, quorum species per incredibilem distantiam vsque
ad maria nostra propagata ad perpendiculum vsq;, vbi est magnes, consuetam
attractionem facit: propter distantiam autem quum debilis sit, non moueret
quidem magnetem, nisi esset in perpendiculo: quare & si non trahit vsq; ac.
principium, vnde effluxit, at mouet tam[~e], & propinquiorem facit, quo
potest. Quod si naues sorte vllæ propinquiores sint illis montibus, ferrum
omne ear[~u] cuellitur, propter quod nauigijs incolæ vtuntur clauis ligneis
astrictis."
In the last chapter of his _De Sympathia_, Fracastorio returns to the
subject {13} in consequence of some doubts expressed by Giambattista
Rhamnusio, seeing that the loadstones in the Island of Elba do not sensibly
deflect the magnet. Fracastorio replies thus (p. 76, _op. citat._):
"Primum igitur vtrum sub Polo sint. Magnetis mõtes, nec ne, sub ambiguo
relinquamus, scimus enim esse, qui scribãt planas magis esse eas regiones,
de quo Paulus Iouius E[~p]us Nucerinus Lucul[~e]tus historiar[~u] nostri
t[~e]poris scriptor, circa eã Sarmatiæ partem, quæ Moscouia n[~u]c dicitur,
diligent[~e] inquisitionem ab incolis fecit, qui ne eos etiã inueniri
montes retulere, qui Rhyphei ab antiquis dicti sunt: meminimus tam[~e] nos
quasdam chartas vidisse earum, quas mundi mappas appellãt, in quibus sub
polo montes notati erant (qui Magnetis montes inscripti fuerant). Siue
igitur sint, siue non sint ij montes, nihil ad nos in præsentiarum attinet,
quando per montes polo subiectos cathenam illam montium intelligimus, qui
ad septentrionem spectant tanti, & tam vasti, ac Ferri & Magnetis feraces:
qui, & si magis distant à nostro mari, [~q] Iluæ insulæ montes, potentiores
tamen sunt ad mouendum perpendiculum propter abundantiam & copiã Ferri, &
Magnetis. Fortasse autem, & qui in Ilua est Magnes, non multæ actionis est
in ea minera: multi enim d[~u] in minera sunt, minus valent, [~q] extracti,
[~q] spirituales species sua habeant impedimenta: signum autem parum valere
in sua minera Iluæ insulæ Magnetem, [~q] tam propinquus quum sit nauigijs
illac prætereuntibus, perpendiculum tamen non ad se cõuertit."
Aldrovandi in the _Musæum Metallicum_ (Bonon., 1648, p. 554) gives another
version of the fable:
"Nonnulli, animadversa hac Magnetis natura, scripserunt naves, quibus in
Calecutanam regionem navigatur, clavis ferreis non figi, ob magneticorum
frequentiam scopulorum, quoniam facilè dissolverentur. Sed Garzias in
Historia Aromatum id fabulosum esse tradidit: quandoquidem plures naues
Calecutanæ regionis, & illius tractus, ferreis clauis iunctas obseruauit:
immò addidit naues in insulis Maldiuis ligneis quidem clauis copulari, non
quia à Magnete sibi metuant, sed quoniam ferri inopia laborant."
According to Aldrovandi (p. 563, _op. citat._) the magnetic mountains are
stated by Sir John Mandeville to be in the region of Pontus.
Lipenius in his _Navigatio Salomonis Ophritica illustrata_ (Witteb., 1660),
which is a mine of curious learning, in discussing the magnetic mountains
quotes the reply of Socrates to the inquirer who asked him as to what went
on in the infernal regions, saying that he had never been there nor had he
ever met any one who had returned thence.
The loadstone rock figures in several early charts. In Nordenskiöld's
_Facsimile Atlas_ (Stockholm, 1889) is given a copy of the Map of Johan
Ruysch from an edition of Ptolemy, publisht in Rome in 1508, which shows
four islands within the ice-bound Arctic regions. South of these islands
and at the east of the coast of Greenland is the inscription: _Hic
compassus navium non tenet, nec naves quæ ferrum tenent revertere valent._
To which (on p. 63) Nordenskiöld adds the comment: _Sagan on magnetberg,
som skulle draga till sig fartyg förande jern, är gamal._ And he recalls
the reference of Ptolemy to the magnetic rocks in the Manioles. A second
inscription is added to Ruysch's map in the ornamental margin that borders
the Arctic islands. _Legere est in libro de inventione fortunati sub polo
arctico rupem esse excelsam ex lapide magnete 33 miliarium germanorum
ambitu._ This refers to a matter recorded in Hakluyt's _Principall
Navigations_ (Lond., 1589, p. 249), namely: "A Testimonie of the learned
Mathematician, maister John Dee, {14} touching the foresaid voyage of
Nicholas de Linna. Anno 1360 a frier of Oxford, being a good Astronomer,
went in companie with others to the most Northren islands of the world, and
there leaving his company together, he travelled alone, and purposely
described all the Northern islands, with the indrawing seas: and the record
thereof at his return he delivered to the king of England. The name of
which booke is _Inventio Fortunata_ (_aliter fortunæ_) _qui liber incipit a
gradu 54 usq. ad polum_."
The situation of the alleged loadstone rock is thus described by T.
Blundevile in his _Exercises_ in the chapter entitled _A plaine and full
description of Peter Plancius his vniuersall Map, seruing both for sea and
land, and by him lately put foorth in the yeare of our Lord, 1592_....
Written in our mother tongue by M. Blundeuill, Anno Domini 1594. The
passage is quoted from p. 253 of the third edition (1606):
"Now betwixt the 72. and 86. degrees of North latitude he setteth downe two
long Ilands extending from the West towardes the East somewhat beyond the
first Meridian, and from the saide Meridian more Eastward he setteth downe
other two long Ilandes ... and hee saith further that right under the North
pole there is a certaine blacke and most high rocke which hath in circuite
thirtie and three leagues, which is nintie and nine miles, and that the
long Iland next to the Pole on the West is the best and most healthfull of
all the North parts. Next to the foresaide Ilandes more Southward hee
setteth downe the Ilandes of Crocklande and Groynelande, making them to
haue a farre longer and more slender shape then all other mappes doe....
Moreouer at the East end of the last Ilande somewhat to the Southwarde, he
placeth the Pole of the Lodestone which is called in Latine Magnes, euen as
Mercator doth in his Mappe who supposing the first Meridian to passe
through Saint Marie or Saint Michael, which are two of the outermost
Ilandes of the Azores Eastwarde, placeth the Pole of the stone in the
seuentie fiue degree of Latitude, but supposing the first Meridian to passe
through the Ile Coruo, which is the furthest Ile of the Azores Westwarde,
he placeth the Pole of the Lodestone in the seuentie seuen degree of
Latitude."
Further, in the chapter on _The Arte of Nauigation_ in the same work (p.
332, _ed. citat._), Blundevile says:
"But whereas Mercator affirmeth that there should bee a mine or great rocke
of Adamant, wherunto all other lesser rockes or Needles touched with the
Lodestone doe incline as to their chiefe fountaine, that opinion seemeth to
mee verie straunge, for truely I rather beleeue with Robert Norman that the
properties of the Stone, as well in drawing steele, as in shewing the North
Pole, are secret vertues given of GOD to that stone for mans necessarie vse
and behoofe, of which secrete vertues no man is able to shewe the true
cause."
The following is one of the inscriptions in the compartments of the great
Chart of Mercator entitled _Ad Usum Navigantium_, published in 1569:
"Testatur Franciscus Diepanus peritissimus nauarchus volubiles libellas,
magnetis virtute infectas recta mundi polum respicere in insulis C.
Viridis, Solis, Bonauista, et Maio, cui proxime astipulantur qui in
Tercera, aut S. Maria (insulæ sunt inter Açores) id fieri dicunt, pauci in
earundem occidentalissima Corvi nomine id contingere opinantur. Quia vero
locorum longitudinis a communi magnetis et mundi meridiano iustis de causis
initium sumere oportet, plurium testimonium sequutus primum meridianum per
dictas C. Viridis insulas protraxi, et quum alibi plus minusque a polo
deuiante {15} magnete polum aliquum peculiarem esse oporteat quo magnetes
ex omni mundi parte despiciant, euum hoc quo assignaui loco existere
adhibita declinatione magnetis Ratisbonæ obseruata didici. Supputaui autem
eius poli situm etiam respectu insulæ Corui, ut iuxta extremo primi
meridiani positus extremi etiam termini, intra quos polum hunc inueniri
necesse est, conspicui fierent, donec certius aliquod nauclerorum
obseruatio attulerit."
Not all the map-makers were as frank as Paulus Merula, the author of a
_Cosmographia Generalis_, printed by Plantin in 1605, at Leyden. For in the
description of his _tabula universalis_ (_op. citat._ lib. iii., cap. 9) he
says that he does not believe in the magnetic islands; but that he has put
them into his chart lest unskilful folk should think that he had been so
careless as to leave them out!
In the well-known myth of Ogier the Dane, immortalized by William Morris in
the _Earthly Paradise_ (London, 1869, vol. i., p. 625), the loadstone rock
is an island in the far North. But this story is not one of the
Scandinavian sagas, and belongs to the Carlovingian cycle of heroic poems,
of which the chief is the _Chanson de Roland_; and Ogier le Danois is
really not a Dane but an _Ardennois_.
In the Middle-High German epic of Kudrun, the adventures of the fleet of
Queen Hilda when attracted by the loadstone mountain at Givers, in the
North Sea, are narrated at some length. (See _Kudrun, herausgegeben und
erklärt von Ernst Martin_. Halle, 1872.) One stanza will serve as a sample:
1126. Ze Givers vor dem berge | lac daz Hilden her.
swie guot ir anker wæren, | an daz vinster mer.
magnêten die steine | heten si gezogen.
ir guote segelboume | stuonden alle gebogen.
which may be rendered:
1126. At Givers before the mountain | lay Hilda's ships by.
Though good their anchors were, | upon the murky sea.
Magnets the stones were | had drawn them thither.
Their good sailing masts | stood all bent together.
Recent magnetic research has shown that while there are no magnetic
mountains that would account for the declination of the compass in general,
yet there are minor local variations that can only be accounted for by the
presence of magnetic reefs or rocks. The reader is referred to the account
of the magnetic survey of Great Britain in the _Philosophical Transactions_
(1890) by Professors Rücker and Thorpe. The well-known rocky peak the
Riffelhorn above Zermatt, in Switzerland, produces distinct perturbations
in the direction of the compass within half a mile of its base. Such local
perturbations are regularly used in Sweden for tracing out the position of
underground lodes of iron ore. See Thalén, _Sur la Recherche des Mines de
Fer à l'aide de Mesures magnétiques_ (Soc. Royale des Sciences d'Upsal,
1877); or B. R. Brough, _The Use of the Magnetic Needle in exploring for
Iron Ore_ (_Scientific American_, Suppl. No. 608, p. 9708, Aug. 27, 1887).
Quite recently Dr. Henry Wilde, F.R.S., has endeavoured to elucidate the
deviations of the compass as the result of the configurations of land and
sea on the globe, by means of a model globe in which the ocean areas are
covered with thin sheet iron. This apparatus Dr. Wilde calls a
_Magnetarium_. See _Proc. Roy. Soc._, June, 1890, Jan., 1891, and June,
1891. {16} An actual magnetic rock exists in Scandinavia, the following
account of it being given in the _Electrical Review_ of New York, May 3,
1899:
"The island of Bornholm in the Baltic, which consists of a mass of magnetic
iron ore, is much feared by mariners. On being sighted they discontinue
steering by compass, and go instead by lighthouses. Between Bornholm and
the mainland there is also a dangerous bank of rock under water. It is said
that the magnetic influence of this ore bank is so powerful that a balanced
magnetic needle suspended freely in a boat over the bank will take a
vertical position."
[29] PAGE 5, LINE 35. Page 5, line 43. _Josephus Costa._--This is
unquestionably a misprint for _Acosta_ (Joseph de), the Jesuit, whose work
_Historia natural y moral de las Indias_ was publisht at Seville in 1590.
An Italian edition appeared at Venice in 1596. The English edition,
translated by E. Grimestone, _The Naturall and Morall Historie of the East
and West Indies_, was publisht in London in 1604 and 1878. There are in
Gilbert's book references to two writers of the name of Costa or Costæus,
Joannes Costa of Lodi, who edited Galen and Avicenna (see pp. 3 and 62),
and Filippo Costa of Mantua, who wrote on antidotes and medicaments (see p.
141). The passage to which Gilbert refers is in Acosta's _Historia_ (ed.
1590, p. 64).
"Deziame a mi vn piloto muy diestro Portugues [~q] eran quatro puntos en
todo el orbe, donde se afixaua el aguja con el Norte, y contaualas por sus
nombres, de que no me acuerdo bien. Vno destos es el paraje de la Isla del
Cueruo, en las Terceras, o Islas de Açores, como es cosa y a muy sabida.
Passando di alli a mas altura, Noruestea, que es dezir, [~q] declina al
Poniente ... que me digã la causa desta efecto?... Porque vn poco de hierro
de fregarse cõ la piedra Iman ...
"Mejor es, como dize Gregorio Theologo, que a la Fe se sujete la razon,
pues aun en su casa no sabe bien entenderse...."
[30] PAGE 5, LINE 36. Page 5, line 45. _Livius Sanutus._--Livio Sanuto
publisht at Venice in 1588 a folio work, _Geografia distinta in xii Libri;
ne' quali, oltre l'esplicatione di nostri luoghi di Tolomeo, della Bussola
e dell' Aguglia, si dichiarono le provincie ... dell' Africa_. In this work
all Liber i. (pages 1-13) deals with observations of the compass,
mentioning Sebastian Cabot, and other navigators. He gives a map of Africa,
showing the central lakes out of which flow the _Zaires fluvius_ and the
_Zanberes fluvius_.
[31] PAGE 6, LINE 2. Page 6, line 5. _Fortunius Affaitatus._--The work of
Affaytatus, _Physicæ ac astronomiæ considerationes_, was publisht in Venice
in 1549.
[32] PAGE 6, LINE 3. Page 6, line 6. _Baptista Porta._--The reference is to
his celebrated _Magia naturalis_, the first edition of which came out in
1558 at Naples. An English edition, _Natural Magick by John Baptista Porta,
a Neapolitaine_, was printed in London, 1658. Book seven of this volume
treats "Of the wonders of the Load-stone." In the proem to this book Porta
says: "I knew at Venice R. M. Paulus, the Venetian, that was busied in the
same study: he was Provincial of the Order of servants, but now a most
worthy Advocate, from whom I not only confess, that I gained something, but
I glory in it, because of all the men I ever saw, I never saw any man more
learned, or more ingenious, having obtained the whole body of learning; and
is not only the Splendor and Ornament of Venice or Italy, but of the whole
world." The reference is to Fra Paolo Sarpi, better known as the historian
of the Council of Trent. Sarpi was himself known to Gilbert. {17}
His relations with Gilbert are set forth in the memoir prefixt to the
edition of his works, _Opere di Fra Paolo Sarpi, Servita_ ... in Helmstat,
MDCCLXI, p. 83. "Fino a questi giorni continuava il Sarpi a raccorre
osservazioni sulla declinazione dell' Ago Calamitato; e poi ch' egli,
atteso il variare di tal declinazione, assurdità alcuna non trovava
riguardo al pensamento dell' Inglese Guglielmo Gilberto, cioè, che
l'interno del nostro Globo fosse gran Calamita...." Here follows a
quotation from a letter of Sarpi to Lescasserio:
"... Unde cuspidem trahi a tanta mole terrena, quæ supereminet non absurde
putavit Gullielmus Gilbertus, et in eo meridiano respicere recta polum,
cave putes observatorem errasse. Est Vir accuratissimus, et interfuit
omnibus observationibus, quas plures olim fecimus, et aliquas in sui
gratiam, et cum arcubus vertici cupreo innitentibus, et cum innatantibus
aquæ, et cum brevibus, et cum longis, quibus modis omnibus et Hierapoli
usus suit."
Sarpi had correspondence with Gilbert, Bacon, Grotius, and Casaubon. He
also wrote on magnetism and other topics _in materia di Fisica_, but these
writings have perisht. He appears to have been the first to recognize that
fire destroyed the magnetic properties. (See _Fra Paolo Sarpi, the greatest
of the Venetians_ by the Rev. Alexander Robertson, London, 1894; see also
the notice of Sarpi in Park Benjamin's _Intellectual Rise in Electricity_.)
[33] PAGE 6, LINE 7. Page 6, line 11.: _R. M. Paulus Venetus_. See
preceding note.
[34] PAGE 6, LINE 21. Page 6, line 28.: _Franciscus Rueus_.--Francois de la
Rue, author of _De Gemmis Aliquot_ ... (Paris, 1547). Amongst other fables
narrated by Rueus is that if a magnet is hung on a balance, when a piece of
iron is attracted and adheres to the magnet, it adds nothing to the weight!
[35] PAGE 6, LINE 25. Page 6, line 33.: _Serapio_.--This account of the
magnetic mountains will be found in an early pharmacology printed in 1531
(Argentorati, G. Ulricher Andlenus), with the title "In hoc volumine
continetur insignium medicorum Joan. Serapionis Arabis de Simplicibus
Medicinis opus præclarum et ingens, Averrois Arabis de eisdem liber
eximius, Rasis filius Zachariæ de eisdem opusculum perutile." It was edited
by Otho Brunsels. Achilles P. Gasser, in his Appendix to the Augsburg
edition of Peregrinus, gives a reference to Serapio Mauritanus, parte 2,
cap. 394, libri _de medicinis compositis._
[36] PAGE 6, LINE 30. Page 6, line 39.: _Olaus Magnus_. See note to p. 5.
[37] PAGE 6, LINE 34. Page 6, line 44.: _Hali Abas_.--A reference is given
in Gasser's (1558) edition of Peregrinus to Haliabbas Arabs, lib. 2,
_practicæ_ cap. 45, _Regalis Dispositionis Medicinæ_. The passage to which
Gilbert refers is found in the volume _Liber totius medicinæ necessaria
c[=o]tinens ... quem Haly filius Abbas ... edidit ... et a Stephano ex
arabica lingua reductus_. (Lugd., 1523, 4to.) Liber Primus. Practice, Cap
xlv. _de speciebus lapidum_, § 466. "Lapis magnetes filis e [=v]tute
sadenego: & aiunt q[=m] si teneat^r in manu mitigat [=q] sunt in pedib^s
ipis dolores ac spasm[=u]."
Mr. A. G. Ellis identifies the noun _sadenegum_ as a Latin corruption of
the Arabic name of hæmatite, _shâdanaj_.
[38] PAGE 6, LINE 36. Page 6, line 46.: _Pictorius_.--His poem was publisht
at Basel, 1567. See also note on Marbodæus, p. 7, line 20, below.
[39] PAGE 6, LINE 36. Page 7, line 1.: _Albertus Magnus_.--Albertus, the
celebrated Archbishop of Ratisbon, is responsible for propagating sundry of
the myths of the magnet; and Gilbert never loses a chance of girding at
him. {18} The following examples are taken from the treatise _De
mineralibus et rebus metallicis_ (Liber II. _de lapidibus preciosis_),
Venet., 1542.
p. 171. "Et quod mirabile videtur multis his lapis [adamas] quando Magneti
supponitur ligat Magnetem et non permittit ipsum ferrum trahere."
p. 193. "Vnctus aut[~e] lapis alleo non trahit, si superponitur ei Adamas
iterum non attrahit, ita quod paruus Adamas magn[~u] ligat Magnet[~e].
Inventus aut[~e] est nostris t[~e]poribus Magnes qui ab uno angulo traxit
ferr[~u] et ab alio fugavit, et hunc Aristot. ponit aliud genus esse
Magnetis. Narrauit mihi quidam ex nostris sociis experim[~e]tator quod
uidit Federicum Imperatorem habere Magnetem qui non traxit ferrum, sed
ferrum uiceuersa traxit lapidem."
The first edition of this work _de mineralibus_ appears to have been
publisht in Venice as a folio in 1495.
[40] PAGE 7, LINE 9. Page 7, line 15. _Gaudentius Merula_.--This obscure
passage is from Liber IIII., cap. xxi., _Lapides_, of the work
_Memorabilium Gaudentii Merulæ..._ (Lugd., 1556), where we find:
"Qui magneti vrsæ sculpserit imaginem, quãdo Luna melius illuc aspiciat, &
filo ferreo susp[~e]derit, compos fiet vrsæ cælestis virtutis: verùm cum
Saturni radiis vegetetur, satius fuerit eam imaginem non habere: scribunt
enim Platonici malos dæmones septentrionales esse" (p. 287).
"Trahit autem magnes ferrum ad se, quod ferro sit ordine superior apud
vrsum" (p. 287).
The almost equally obscure passage in the _De triplici vita_ of Marsiglio
Ficino (Basil., 1532) runs:
"Videmus in specula nautarum indice poli libratum acum affectum in
extremitate Magnete moueri ad Vrsam, illuc uidelicet trahente Magnete:
quoniam & in lapide hoc præualet uirtus Vrsæ, & hinc transfertur in ferrum,
& ad Vrsam trahit utrunq;. Virtus autem eiusmodi tum ab initio infusa est,
tum continue Vrsæ radijs uegetatur, Forsitan ita se habet Succinum ad polum
alterum & ad paleas. Sed dic interea, Cur Magnes trahit ubiq; ferrum? non
quia simile, alioquin & Magnetem Magnes traheret multo magis, ferrum[=q];
ferr[=u]: non quia superior in ordine corporum, imò superius est lapillo
metallum ... Ego autem quum hæc explorata hactenus habuissem admodum
gratulabar, cogitabam[=q]; iuuenis adhuc Magneti pro uiribus inscluperet
(_sic_) coelestis Vrsæ figuram, quando Luna melius illuc aspiciat, & ferro
t[=u]c filo collo suspendere. Sperabam equidem ita demum uirtutis me
sideris illius compotem fore," &c. (p. 172).
[41] PAGE 7, LINE 14. Page 7, line 20. _Ruellius_.--Joannes Ruellius wrote
a herbal _De Natura Stirpium_, Paris, 1536, which contains a very full
account of amber, and a notice of the magnet (p. 125) and of the fable
about garlic. But on p. 530 of the same work he ridicules Plutarch for
recording this very matter.
[42] PAGE 7, LINE 20. Page 7, line 27. _Marbodæus Gallus_.--This rare
little book is entitled _Marbodei Galli Poetæ vetustissimi de lapidibus
pretiosis Enchiridion_. It was printed at Paris in 1531. The Freiburg
edition, also of 1531, has the commentaries of Pictorius. The poem is in
Latin hexameters. After a preface of twenty-one lines the virtues of stones
are dealt with, the paragraph beginning with a statement that Evax, king of
the Arabs, is said to have written to Nero an account of the species, names
and colours of stones, their place of origin and their potencies; and that
this work formed the basis of the poem. The alleged magical powers of the
magnet are recited in Caput I., _Adamas_. Caput XLIII., _Magnes_, gives
further myths. {19} The commentary of Pictorius gives references to earlier
writers, Pliny, Dioscorides, Bartholomæus Anglicus, Solinus, Serapio, and
to the book _de lapidibus_ erroneously ascribed to Aristotle.
The following is a specimen of the poem of Marbodeus:
_Magnetes lapis est inuentus apud Trogloditas,_
_Qu[=e] lapid[=a] genetrix nihilominus India mittit._
_Hic ferruginei cognoscitur esse coloris,_
_Et ui naturæ uicinum tollere ferrum._
_Ededon magus hoc primum ferè dic[=i]tur usus,_
_Conscius in magica nihil esse potentius arte._
_Post illum fertur famosa uenefica Circe_
_Hoc in præstigijs magicis specialiter usa._
This poem was reprinted (1854) in Migne's _Patrologia_. In 1799 Johann
Beckmann issued an annotated variorum edition of Marbodeus (_Marbodi Liber
Lapidvm sev de Gemmis_..., Göttingæ, 1799), in which there is a
bibliography of the poem, the first edition of which appears to have been
publisht in 1511, at Vienna, thirteen other editions being described.
Beckmann adds many illustrative notes, and a notice of the Arabian Evax,
who is supposed to have written the treatise _de lapidibus_. Not the least
curious part is a French translation alleged to have been written in 1096,
of which Chap. XIX. on the Magnet begins thus:
Magnete trovent Trogodite,
En Inde e precieus est ditte.
Fer resemble e si le trait,
Altresi cum laimant fait.
Dendor lama mult durement.
Qi lusoit a enchantement.
Circe lus a dot mult chere,
Cele merveillose forciere, &c.
[43] PAGE 7, LINE 21. Page 7, line 28. _echeneidis._--The _echeneis_, or
sucking-fish, reputed to have magical or magnetic powers, is mentioned by
many writers. As an example, see Fracastorio, _De Sympathia et Antipathia_,
lib. i., cap. 8, _De Echineide, quomodo firmare nauigia possit_ (Giunta
edition, Venet., 1574, p. 63). For other references to the _Echeneis_ see
Gaudentius Merula (_op. citat._) p. 209. Also Dr. Walter Charleton,
_Physiologia Epicuro Gassendo-Charltoniana_ (Lond., 1654), p. 375. Compare
p. 63, line 3.
[44] PAGE 7, LINE 33. Page 7, line 43. _Thomas Hariotus_, etc.--The four
Englishmen named were learned men who had contributed to navigation by
magnetic observations. Harriot's account of his voyage to Virginia is
printed in Hakluyt's _Voyages_. Robert Hues (or Hood) wrote a treatise _on
Globes_, the Latin edition of which appeared in 1593 (dedicated to Sir
Walter Raleigh), and the English edition in 1638. It was republisht by the
Hakluyt Society, 1889. Edward Wright, the mathematician and writer on
navigation, also wrote the preface to Gilbert's own book. Abraham Kendall,
or Abram Kendal was "Portulano," or sailing-master of Sir Robert Dudley's
ship the _Bear_, and is mentioned in Dudley's _Arcano del Mare_. On the
return of Dudley's expedition in 1595, he joined Drake's last expedition,
which sailed that year, and died on the same day as Drake himself, 28
January, 1596. (See _Hakluyt_, ed. 1809, iv., p. 73.)
[45] PAGE 7, LINE 36. Page 8, line 1. _Guilielmus Borough._--Borough's book
has the title: _A Discours of the Variation of the Cumpas, or magneticall
{20} Needle. Wherein is Mathematically shewed, the manner of the
obseruation, effectes, and application thereof, made by W. B._ And is to be
annexed to _The Newe Attractive_ of R. N., 1581 (London).
[46] PAGE 7, LINE 37. Page 8, line 2. _Guilielmus Barlo_.--Archdeacon
William Barlowe (author, in 1616, of the _Magneticall Aduertisements_)
wrote in 1597 a little work called _The Navigators Supply_. It gives a
description of the ordinary compass, and also one of a special form of
meridian compass provided with sights for taking the bearings by the sun.
[47] PAGE 7, LINE 37. Page 8, line 3. _Robertus Normannus_. See Note to p.
5.
[48] PAGE 8, LINE 14. Page 8, line 21. _illo fabuloso Plinij bubulco_.--The
following is Pliny's account from Philemon Holland's English version of
1601 (p. 586): "As for the name Magnes that it hath, it tooke it (as
_Nicander_ saith) of the first inventor and deviser thereof, who found it
(by his saying) upon the mountaine Ida (for now it is to be had in all
other countries, like as in Spaine also;) and (by report) a Neat-heard he
was: who, as he kept his beasts upon the aforesaid mountaine, might
perceive as he went up and downe, both the hob-nailes which were on his
shoes, and also the yron picke or graine of his staffe, to sticke unto the
said stone."
[49] PAGE 9, LINE 22. Page 9, line 30. _Differentiæ priscis ex
colore_.--Pliny's account of the loadstones of different colours which came
from different regions is mainly taken from Sotacus. The white magnet,
which was friable, like pumice, and which did not draw iron, was probably
simply magnesia. The blue loadstones were the best. See p. 587 of Holland's
translation of Pliny, London, 1601. St. Isidore (_Originum seu
Etymologiarum_, lib. xvi., cap. 4) says: "Omnis autem magnes tanta melior
est, quanto [magis] cæruleus est."
[50] PAGE 10, LINE 29. Page 10, line 42. _Suarcebergo ... Snebergum &
Annæbergum_.--In the Stettin editions of 1628 and 1633 these are spelled
_Swarcebergs ... Schnebergum & Annebergum_. The Cordus given as authority
for these localities is Valerius Cordus, the commentator on Dioscorides.
[51] PAGE 11, LINE 3. Page 11, line 12. _Adriani Gilberti viri
nobilis_.--"Adrian Gylbert of Sandridge in the Countie of Devon, Gentleman"
is the description of the person to whom Queen Elizabeth granted a patent
for the discovery of a North-West passage to China. See Hakluyt's
_Voyages_, vol. iii., p. 96.
[52] PAGE 11, LINE 17. Page 11, line 28. _Dicitur a Græcis_ [Greek:
êraklios].--The discussion of the names of the magnet in different
languages by Gilbert in this place is far from complete. He gives little
more than is to be found in Pliny. For more complete discussions the reader
is referred to Buttmann, _Bemerkungen über die Benennungen einiger
Mineralien bei den Alten, vorzüglich des Magnetes und des Basaltes_ (Musæum
der Alterthumswissenschaft, Bd. II., pp. 5-52, and 102-104, 1808); G.
Fournier, _Hydrographie_ (livre xi., chap. I, 1643); Ulisse Aldrovandi,
_Musæum Metallicum_ (Bononiæ, 1648, lib. iv., cap. 2, p. 554); Klaproth,
_Lettre à M. le Baron A. de Humboldt, sur l'invention de la Boussole_,
Paris, 1834; T. S. Davies, _The History of Magnetical Discovery_ (Thomson's
_British Annual_, 1837, pp. 250-257); Th. Henri Martin, _De l'Aimant, de
ses noms divers et de ses variétés suivant les Anciens_ (Mémoires présentés
par divers savants a l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, I^{re}
série, t. vi., I^{re} partie, 1861); G. A. Palm, _Der Magnet in Alterthum_
(Programm des k. württembergischen Seminars Maulbronn, Stuttgart, {21}
1867). Of these works, those of Klaproth and of Martin are by far the most
important. Klaproth states that in modern Greek, in addition to the name
[Greek: magnêtis], the magnet also has the names [Greek: adamas] and
[Greek: kalamita]. The former of these, in various forms, _adamas_,
_adamant_, _aimant_, _yman_, and _piedramon_, has gone into many languages.
Originally the word [Greek: adamas] (the unconquered) was applied by the
Greeks to the hardest of the metals with which they were acquainted, that
is to say, to hard-tempered iron or steel, and it was subsequently because
of its root-signification also given by them to the diamond for the same
reason; it was even given to the henbane because of the deadly properties
of that plant. In the writings of the middle ages, in St. Augustine, St.
Isidore, Marbodeus, and even in Pliny, we find some confusion between the
two uses of _adamas_ to denote the loadstone as well as the diamond.
Certainly the word _adamas_, without ceasing to be applied to the diamond,
also designated the loadstone. At the same time (says Martin) the word
_magnes_ was preserved, as Pliny records, to designate a loadstone of
lesser strength than the _adamas_. On the other hand, the word _diamas_, or
_deamans_, had already in the thirteenth century been introduced into Latin
to signify the diamond as distinguisht from the magnet. _Adamas_ was
rendered _aymant_ in the romance version of the poem of Marbodeus on stones
(see Beckmann's variorum edition of 1799, p. 102), and in this form it was
for a time used to denote both the magnet and the diamond. Then it
gradually became restricted in use to the stone that attracts iron.
Some confusion has also arisen with respect to the Hebrew name of the
magnet. Sir W. Snow Harris makes the following statement (_Magnetism_, p.
5): "In the Talmud it [the loadstone] is termed _achzhàb'th_, the stone
which attracts; and in their ancient prayers it has the European name
_magn[=e]s_." On this point Dr. A. Löwy has furnisht the following notes.
The loadstone is termed in one of the Talmudical sections and in the
Midrash, _Eben Shoebeth_ (lapis attrahens). This would of course be written
[Hebrew: 'BN SHW'BT]. Omitting the [Hebrew: W] which marks the participial
construction, the words would stand thus: [Hebrew: 'BN SH'BT] A person
referring to Buxtorf's _Lexicon_ Talmudicum would in the index look out for
"Lapis magnesius," or for "magnes." He would then, in the first instance,
be referred to the two words already quoted. Not knowing the value of the
letters of the Hebrew alphabet, he reads [Hebrew: 'BN SH'BT] thus: [Hebrew:
'KZSH'BT] achzhab'th. It is true that Buxtorf has inserted in his _Lexicon_
the vocable [Hebrew: MAGNIYSEIS], "corruptum ex gr. [Greek: magnês,
magnêtês, magnêtis], named after the Asiatic city Magnesia." He goes on to
say, "Inde Achilles Statius istum lapidem vocavit [Greek: magnêsian
lithon]. Hinc [Hebrew: 'BN HMGNJSS CHMSHWK HBRZL]. Lapis Magnesius trahit
ferrum." Here he quotes from (Sepher) Ikkarem IV., cap. 35.
Kircher, in his _Magnes, sive de Arte magnetica_ (Coloniæ, 1643), gives
several other references to Hebrew literature. Others have supposed that
the word [Hebrew: CHLMYSH] _khallamish_, which signifies pebble, rock, or
hard rock, to be used for the magnet.
As to the other Greek name, [Greek: sidêritis], or [Greek: lithos
sidêritis] this was given not only to the loadstone but also to
non-magnetic iron. In the _Etymologicum magnum_ (under the word [Greek:
magnêtis]), and in Photius (_Quæst. amphiloch._, q. 131), it is stated that
the name _sideritis_ was given to the loadstone either because of its
action on iron, or of its resemblance in aspect to iron, _or rather_, they
say, _because the loadstone was originally found in the mines of this
metal_. Alexander of Aphrodisias expressly says (_Quætiones Physicæ_, II.
23) that {22} the loadstone appears to be nothing else than [Greek: gê
sidêritis], the earth which yields iron, or the earth of iron.
[53] PAGE 11, LINE 19. Page 11, line 29. _ab Orpheo_.--The reference is to
v. 301-328 of the [Greek: Lithika]. The passage, as given in Abel's edition
(Berol., 1881), begins:
[Greek: Tolma d' athanatous kai henêei meilissethai]
[Greek: magnêssêi, tên d' exoch' ephilato thousios Arês,]
[Greek: houneken, hoppote ken pelasêi polioio sidêrou,]
[Greek: êute parthenikê terenochroa chersin helousa]
[Greek: êitheon sternôi prosptussetai himeroenti,]
[Greek: hôs hêg' harpazousa poti spheteron demas haiei]
[Greek: aps palin ouk ethelei methemen polemista sidêron.]
[54] PAGE 11, LINE 20. Page 11, line 31. _Gallis aimant_.--The French word
_aimant_, or _aymant_, is generally supposed to be derived from _adamas_.
Nevertheless Klaproth (_op. citat._, p. 19) suggests that the word _aimant_
is a mere literal translation into French of the Chinese word _thsu chy_,
which is the common name of the magnet, and which means _loving stone_, or
_stone that loves_. All through the east the names of the magnet have
mostly the same signification, for example, in Sanskrit it is _thoumbaka_
(the kisser), in Hindustani _tchambak_.
[55] PAGE 11, LINE 20. Page 11, line 32. _Italis calamita_.--The name
_calamita_, universal in Italian for the magnet, is also used in Roumanian,
Croatian, Bosnian, and Wendish. Its supposed derivation from the Hebrew
_khallamîsh_ is repudiated by Klaproth, who also points out that the use of
[Greek: kalamita] in Greek is quite modern. He adds that the only
reasonable explanation of the word _calamita_ is that given by Father
Fournier (_op. citat._), who says:
"Ils (les marins français) la nomment aussi _calamite_, qui proprement en
français signifie une _grenouille verte_, parce qu'avant qu'on ait trouvé
l'invention de suspendre et de balancer sur un pivot l'aiguille aimantée,
nos ancêtres l'enfermaient dans une fiole de verre demi-remplie d'eau, et
la faisaient flotter, par le moyen de deux petits fétus, sur l'eau comme
une grenouille." Klaproth adds that he entirely agrees with the learned
Jesuit, but maintains that the word _calamite_, to designate the little
green frog, called to-day _le graisset_, _la raine_, or _la rainette_, is
essentially Greek. For we read in Pliny (_Hist. Nat._ lib. xxxii., ch. x.):
"Ea rana quam Græci _calamiten_ vocant, quoniam inter arundines,
fruticesque vivat, minima omnium est et viridissima."
[56] PAGE 11, LINE 20. Page 11, line 32. _Anglis_ loadstone & adamant
stone.
The English term _loadstone_ is clearly connected with the Anglo-Saxon verb
_loedan_, to lead, and with the Icelandic _leider-stein_. There is no doubt
that the spelling _lodestone_ would be etymologically more correct, since
it means _stone that leads_ not _stone that carries a load_. The correct
form is preserved in the word _lode-star_.
The word _adamant_, from _adamas_, the mediæval word for both loadstone and
diamond, also occurs in English for the loadstone, as witness Shakespeare:
"You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant
But yet you draw not iron; for my heart
Is true as steel."
_Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act II, Scene 1.
[57] PAGE 11, LINE 21. Page 11, {23} line 33. _Germanis magness_, &
_siegelstein_. The Stettin edition of 1628 reads _Germanis_ MAGNETSTEIN,
_Belgis_ SEYLSTEEN; while that of 1633 reads _Germanis_ MAGNETSTEIN,
_Belgis_ SYLSTEEN.
[58] PAGE 11, LINE 26. Page 11, line 39. In this line the Greek sentence
is, in every known copy of the folio of 1600, corrected in ink upon the
text, [Greek: thalês] being thus altered into [Greek: Thalês], and [Greek:
apomnemonuousi] into [Greek: apomnemoneuousi]. Four lines lower, brackets
have been inserted around the words (lapidum specularium modo). These ink
corrections must have been made at the printers', possibly by Gilbert's own
hand. They have been carried out as errata in the editions of 1628 and
1633. The "facsimile" Berlin reprint of 1892 has deleted them, however.
Other ink corrections on pp. 14, 22, 38, 39, 47, 130, and 200 of the folio
edition of 1600 are noted in due course.
[59] PAGE 11, LINE 29. Page 11, line 45. _lapis specularis_. This is the
mediæval name for _mica_, but in Elizabethan times known as talc or muscovy
stone. Cardan, _De Rerum Varietate_ (Basil., 1557, p. 418), lib. xiiii.,
cap. lxxii., mentions the use of _lapis specularis_ for windows.
[60] PAGE 11, LINE 31. Page 11, line 46.: _Germanis Katzensilbar_ &
_Talke_.--In the editions of 1628 and 1633 this is corrected to _Germanis_
KATZENSILBER & TALCKE. Goethe, in _Wilhelm Meister's Travels_, calls mica
"cat-gold."
[61] PAGE 12, LINE 30. Page 12, line 35. _integtum_ appears to be a
misprint for _integrum_, which is the reading of editions 1628 and 1633.
[62] PAGE 13, LINE 4. Page 13, line 3. [Greek: mikrogê] _seu Terrella_.
Although rounded loadstones had been used before Gilbert's time (see
Peregrinus, p. 3 of Augsburg edition of 1558, or Baptista Porta, p. 194, of
English edition of 1658), Gilbert's use of the spherical loadstone as a
model of the globe of the earth is distinctive. The name _Terrella_
remained in the language. In _Pepys's Diary_ we read how on October 2,
1663, he "received a letter from Mr. Barlow with a terella." John Evelyn,
in his _Diary_, July, 1655, mentions a "pretty terella with the circles and
showing the magnetic deviations."
A Terrella, 4½ inches in diameter, was presented in 1662 by King Charles I.
to the Royal Society, and is still in its possession. It was examined in
1687 (see _Phil. Transactions_ for that year) by the Society to see whether
the positions of its poles had changed.
In Grew's _Catalogue and Description of the Rarities belonging to the Royal
Society and preserved at Gresham College_ (London, 1681, p. 364) is
mentioned a Terrella contrived by Sir Christopher Wren, with one half
immersed in the centre of a plane horizontal table, so as to be like a
Globe with the poles in the horizon, having thirty-two magnet needles
mounted in the margin of the table to show "the different respect of the
_Needle_ to the several _Points_ of the _Loadstone_."
In Sir John Pettus's _Fleta Minor_, London, 1683, in the _Dictionary of
Metallick Words_ at the end, under the word _Loadstone_ occurs the
following passage:
"Another piece of Curiosity I saw in the Hands of Sir _William Persal_
(since Deceased also) _viz._, a _Terrella_ or _Load-stone_, of little more
than _6 Inches Diameter_, turned into a _Globular Form_, and all the
_Imaginery Lines_ of our _Terrestrial Globe_, exactly drawn upon it: _viz._
the _Artick _ and _Antartick Circles_, the _two Tropicks_, the _two
Colures_, the _Zodiack_ and _Meridian_; and these _Lines_, and the several
_Countryes_, artificially _Painted_ on it, and all of them with their true
_Distances_, from the two _Polar Points_, and to find the truth of those
_Points_, he took two _little pieces_ of a _Needle_, each of about _half_
{24} _an Inch in length_, and those he laid on the _Meridian line_, and
then with _Brass Compasses_, moved one of them towards the _Artick_, which
as it was moved, still raised it self at one end higher and higher, keeping
the other end fixt to the _Terrella_; and when it had compleated it Journy
to the very _Artick Points_, it stood upright upon that _Point_; then he
moved the other piece of _Needle_ to the _Antartick Point_, which had its
_Elevations_ like the other, and when it came to the _Point_, it fixt it
self upon that _Point_, and stood _upright_, and then taking the _Terrella_
in my Hand, I could perfectly see that the two _pieces_ of _Needles_ stood
so exactly one against the other, as if it had been one intire _long
Needle_ put through the _Terrella_, which made me give credit to those who
held, That there is an _Astral Influence_ that _darts_ it self through the
_Globe_ of _Earth_ from _North_ to _South_ (and is as the _Axel-Tree_ to
the _Wheel_, and so called the _Axis_ of the _World_) about which the
_Globe_ of the _Earth_ is turned, by an _Astral Power_, so as what I
thought _imaginary_, by this _Demonstration_, I found _real_."
[63] PAGE 13, LINE 20. Page 13, line 22. The editions of 1628 and 1633 give
a different woodcut from this: they show the terrella lined with meridians,
equator, and parallels of latitude: and they give the compass needle, at
the top, _pointing in the wrong direction_.
[64] PAGE 14, LINE 3. Page 14, line 3. The Berlin "facsimile" reprint omits
the asterisk here.
[65] PAGE 14, LINE 5. Page 14, line 6. _erectus_ altered in ink in the
folio to _erecta_. But _erectus_ is preserved in editions 1628 and 1633. In
Cap. IIII., on p. 14, both these Stettin editions insert an additional cut
representing the terrella A placed in a tub or vessel B floating on water.
[66] PAGE 14, LINE 34. Page 14, line 39. _variatione quad[=a]._ The whole
of Book IIII. is devoted to a discussion of the variation of the compass.
[67] PAGE 16, LINE 28. Page 16, line 34. _aquæ._--This curious use of the
dative occurs also on p. 222, line 8.
[68] PAGE 17, LINE 1. Page 17, line 1. _videbis._--The reading _vibebis_ of
the 1633 edition is an error.
[69] PAGE 18, LINE 24. Page 18, line 27. _Theamedem._--For the myth about
the alleged _Theamedes_, or repelling magnet, see Cardan, _De Subtilitate_
(folio ed., 1550, lib. vii., p. 186).
Pliny's account, in the English version of 1601 (p. 587), runs:
"To conclude, there is another mountaine in the same Æthyopia, and not
farre from the said Zimiris, which breedeth the stone Theamedes that will
abide no yron, but rejecteth and driveth the same from it."
Martin Cortes, in his _Arte de Nauegar_ (Seville, 1556), wrote:
"And true it is that Tanxeades writeth, that in Ethiope is found another
kinde of this stone, that putteth yron from it" (Eden's translation,
London, 1609).
[70] PAGE 21, LINE 24. Page 21, line 25. _Hic segetes, &c._--The English
version of these lines from Vergil's _Georgics_, Book I., is by the late
Mr. R. D. Blackmore.
[71] PAGE 22, LINE 18. Page 22, line 19. _quale_, altered in ink in the
folio text to _qualis_. The editions of 1628 and 1633 both read _qualis_.
[72] PAGE 22, LINE 19. Page 22, line 20. _rubrica fabrili_: in English
_ruddle_ or _reddle_. See "Sir" John Hill, _A General Natural History_,
1748, p. 47. In the _De Re Metallica_ of Entzelt (Encelius), Frankfurt,
1551, p. 134, is a paragraph headed _De Rubrica Fabrili_, as follows:
"Rubrica fabrilis duplex {25} est. à Germanis añt utraque dicitur rottel,
röttelstein, wie die zimmerleüt vnd steynmetzen brauchen. à Græcis [Greek:
miltos tektonikê]. Est enim alia nativa, alia factitia. Natiua à Germanis
propriè dicitur berckrottel. haec apud nos est fossilis.... Porro factitia
est rubrica fabrilis, à Germanis braunrottel, quæ fit ex ochra usta, ut
Theophrastus et Dioscorides testantur."
[73] PAGE 22, LINE 19. Page 22, line 20. _In Sussexia Angliæ._--In Camden's
_Britannia_ (1580) we read concerning the iron industry in the villages in
Sussex: "They are full of iron mines in sundry places, where, for the
making and founding thereof, there be furnaces on every side; and a huge
deal of wood is yearly burnt. The heavy forge-hammers, worked by
water-power, stored in hammer-ponds, ceaselessly beating upon the iron,
fill the neighbourhood round about, day and night, with continual noise."
[74] PAGE 23, LINE 1. Page 22, line 44. _in libro Aristotelis de admirandis
narrationibus._--The reference is to the work usually known as the _De
Mirabilibus Auscultationibus_, Cap. XLVIII.: "Fertur autem peculiarissima
generatio esse ferri Chalybici Amisenique, ut quod ex sabulo quod a fluviis
defertur, ut perhibent certe, conflatur. Alii simpliciter lotum in fornace
excoqui, alii vero, quod ex lotura subsedit, frequentius lotum comburi
tradunt adjecto simul et pyrimacho dicto lapide, qui in ista regio plurimus
reperiri fertur." (Ed. Didot, vol. ii., p. 87.) According to Georgius
Agricola, the stone pyrimachus is simply iron pyrites.
[75] PAGE 23, LINE 22. Page 23, line 23. _vt in Italia Comi_, &c.--This is
mostly taken from Pliny. Compare the following passage from Philemon
Holland's translation (1601), p. 514:
"But the most varietie of yron commeth by the meanes of the water, wherein
the yron red-hot is eftsoones dipped and quenched for to be hardened. And
verely, water only which in some place is better, in other worse, is that
which hath ennobled many places for the excellent yron that commeth from
them, as namely, Bilbilis in Spaine, and Tarassio, Comus also in Italie;
for none of these places have any yron mines of their owne, and yet there
is no talke but of the yron and steele that commeth from thence."
Bilbilis is Bambola, and Tariassona the Tarazona of modern Spain.
[76] PAGE 24, LINE 28. Page 24, line 27. _Quare vani sunt illi
Chemici._--Gilbert had no faith in the alchemists. On pp. 19 and 21 he had
poked fun at them for declaring the metals to be constituted of sulphur and
quicksilver, and for pronouncing the fixed earth in iron to be sulphur. On
p. 20 he had denied their proposition that the differences between silver,
gold, and copper could arise from proportions of their constituent
materials; and he likewise denounced unsparingly the supposed relation
between the seven metals and the seven planets. He now denounces the vain
dreams of turning all metals into gold, and all stones into diamonds. Later
he rejects as absurd the magnetic curing of wounds. His detachment from the
pseudo-science of his age was unique if not complete.
[77] PAGE 25, LINE 15. Page 25, line 16. _Petro-coriis, & Cabis
Biturgibus._--The Petro-corii were a tribe in the neighbourhood of
Perigord; the Cubi Biturges another in that of Bourges.
[78] PAGE 25, LINE 21. Page 25, line 23. Pliny's account, as translated by
P. Holland (ed. 1601, p. 515), runs thus:
"Of all mines that be, the veine of this mettall is largest, and spreadeth
it selfe into most lengths every way: as we may see in that part of Biscay
that coasteth along the sea, and upon which the Ocean beateth: where there
{26} is a craggie mountaine very steep and high, which standeth all upon a
mine or veine of yron. A wonderfull thing, and in manner incredible,
howbeit, most true, according as I have shewed already in my Cosmographie,
as touching the circuit of the Ocean."
[79] PAGE 26, LINE 15. Page 26, line 12. _quas Clampas nostri vocant._--The
name _clamp_ for the natural kiln formed by heaping up the bricks, with
ventilating spaces and fuel within the heap, is still current.
[80] PAGE 26, LINE 39. Page 26, line 38. _Pluebat in Taurinis ferrum._--The
occurrence is narrated by Scaliger, _De Subtilitate_, Exercitat. cccxxiii.:
"Sed falsò lapidis pluviam creas tu ex pulvere hausto à nubibus, atque in
lapidem condensato. At ferrum, quod pluit in Taurinis, cuius frustum apud
nos extat, qua ex fodina sustulit nubes? Tribus circiter annis antè, quàm
ab Rege provincia illa recepta esset, pluit ferro multis in locis, sed
raris" (p. 434, Editio Lutetiæ, 1557).
"During the latter ages of the Roman Empire the _city_ of Augusta
Taurinorum seems to have been commonly known (as was the case in many
instances in Transalpine Gaul) by the name of the tribe to which it
belonged, and is called simply Taurini in the Itineraries, as well as by
other writers, hence its modern name of Torino or Turin" (Smith's
_Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geographies_, p. 1113).
There exists a considerable literature respecting falls of meteors and of
meteoric iron. Livy, Plutarch, and Pliny all record examples. See also
_Remarks concerning stones said to have fallen from the clouds_, by Edward
King (London, 1796); Chladni, _Ueber den Ursprung der von Pallas gefundenen
und anderer ihr ähnlicher Eisenmassen_ (Riga, 1794); _Philosophical
Transactions_, vol. lxxviii., pp. 37 and 183; vol. lxxxv., p. 103; vol.
xcii., p. 174; Humboldt's _Cosmos_, vol. i. (p. 97 of London edition,
1860); C. Rammelsberg, _Die chemische Natur der Meteoriten_ (Berlin, 1879);
Maskelyne, _Some lecture-notes on Meteorites_ printed in _Nature_, vol.
xii., pp. 485, 504, and 520, 1875. Maskelyne denominates as _siderites_
those meteorites which consist chiefly of iron. They usually contain from
80 to 95 per cent. of iron, often alloyed with nickel. This meteoric iron
is sometimes so pure that it can at once be forged by the smith. An
admirable summary of the whole subject is to be found in L. Fletcher's _An
Introduction to the study of Meteorites_, publisht by the British Museum
(Nat. Hist.), London, 1896.
[81] PAGE 27, LINE 3. Page 26, line 41. _vt Cardanus ... scribit._--The
passage runs:
"Vidimus anno MDX cum cecidisset è coelo lapides circiter MCC in agrum
fluvio Abduæ conterminum, ex his unum CXX pondo, alium sexaginta delati
fuerunt ad reges Gallor[~u] satrapes, plurimi: colos ferrugineus, durities
eximia, odor sulphureus" (Cardan, _De Rerum Varietate_, lib. xiiii., cap.
lxxii.; Basil., 1557, p. 545).
[82] PAGE 27, LINE 9. Page 27, line 2. _aut stannum, aut plumbum album._
Although most authorities agree in translating _plumbum album_ or _plumbum
candidum_ as "tin" (which is unquestionably the meaning in such examples as
Pliny's _Nat. Hist._, xxxiv. 347, and iv. 16; or Strabo, iii. 147),
nevertheless it is certain that here _plumbum album_ is not given as a
synonym of _stannum_ and therefore is not _tin_. That Gilbert meant either
spelter or pewter is pretty certain. He based his metallic terms mainly
upon Encelius (Christoph Entzelt) whose _De Re Metallica_ was published at
Frankfurt in 1551. From this work are taken the following passages: {27}
p. 61. _De Plumbo candido._ Cap. XXXI.
"Veluti plumbum nigr[~u] uocatur à Germanis blei simpliciter, od'
schwartzblei: ita plumb[~u] candid[~u] ab his uocatur weissblei, od' ziñ.
Impropriè autem plumbum hoc nostrum candidum ziñ, stannum dicitur. Et non
sunt idem, ut hactenus voluerunt, stannum et plumbum candidum, unser ziñ.
Aliud est stannum, de quo mox agemus: et aliud plumbum candidum nostrum,
unser ziñ, quod nigro plumbo quasi est quiddã purius et perfectius...."
p. 62. _De Stanno._ Cap. XXXII.
"In præcedenti capite indicauimus aliud esse stannum, aliud esse plumb[~u]
candid[~u]. Illa ergo definitio plumbi candidi, dess zinnes, etiã apud
chimistas nõ de stanno, sed de plumbo candido (ut mihi uidetur)
intelligenda est, cum dicunt: Stannum (es soll heyssen plumbum candidum)
est metallicum album, non purum, lividum...."
p. 63. "Sic uides stannum, secundum Serapionem, metallicum esse quod
reperitur in sua propria uena, ut forsitan apud nos bisemut[~u]: ecõtra
nostr[~u] candid[~u] plumb[~u], est Plinij candid[~u] plumb[~u], das zin,
quod cõflatur ut plumbum nigrum, ex pyrite, galena, et lapillis nigris.
Deinde uides stannum Plinio esse quiddã de plumbo nigro, nempe primum
fluorem plumbi nigri, als wann man vnser bley ertz schmeltzet, das erst das
do fleüsset, zwäre Plinio stannum. Et hoc docet Plinius adulterari pl[~u]bo
candido, mit vnserm zinn, vnd wann du ihm recht nachdenckest, daruon die
kannen gemacht werden, das man halbwerck heist.... O ir losen vngelerten,
vnckenbrenner. Stannum proculdubio Arabis metallum est preciosius nostro
candido plumbo: sicuti apud nos bisemuthum quiddam plumbo preciosius."
[83] PAGE 27, LINE 21. Page 27, line 17. _venas ... venis._--It is
impossible to give in English this play on words between veins of ore and
veins of the animal body.
[84] PAGE 28, LINE 23. Page 28, line 20. _quem nos verticitatem
dicimus._--See the notes on Gilbert's glossary, _ante_. The word verticity
remained in the language. On p. 140 of Joseph Glanvill's _Vanity of
Dogmatizing_ (Lond., 1661) we read: "We believe the _verticity_ of the
_Needle_, without a Certificate from the _dayes_ of _old_."
[85] PAGE 29, LINE 15. Page 29, line 16. _Nos verò diligentiùs omnia
experientes._--The method of carefully trying everything, instead of
accepting statements on authority, is characteristic of Gilbert's work. The
large asterisks affixed to Chapters IX. X. XI. XII. and XIII. of Book I.
indicate that Gilbert considered them to announce important original
magnetical discoveries. The electrical discoveries of Book II., Chapter
II., are similarly distinguished. A rich crop of new magnetical
experiments, marked with marginal asterisks, large and small, is to be
found in Book II., from Chapter XV. to Chapter XXXIV.; while a third series
of experimental magnetical discoveries extends throughout Book III.
[86] PAGE 31, LINE 30. Page 31, line 25. _verticem._--The context and the
heading of the Chapter appear to require _verticitatem_. All editions,
however, read _verticem_.
[87] PAGE 32, LINE 12. Page 32, line 9. _Gartias ab horto._--The passage
from Gartias ab Horto runs as follows in the Italian edition of 1616,
_Dell' Historia dei Semplici Aromati._... di Don Garzia dall' Horto, Medico
Portughese, ... Venezia MDCXVI., p. 208.
"Nè meno è questa pietra velenosa, si come molti hanno tenuto; imperoche le
genti di queste bande dicono che la Calamita presa per bocca, però in poca
{28} quantità, conserva la gioventù. La onde si racconta, che il Re di
Zeilan il vecchio' s'haveva fatto fare tutti i vasi, dove si cocevano le
vivãde per lui, di Calamita. Et questo lo disse à me colui proprio, che fu
à questo officio destinato."
[88] PAGE 32, LINE 29. Page 32, line 29. _Plutarchus & C. Ptolemæus._--The
garlick myth has already been referred to in the note to p. 1. The
originals are Plutarch, _Quæstiones Platonicæ_, lib. vii., cap. 7, § 1; C.
Ptolemæus, _Opus Quadripartitum,_ bk. i., cap. 3. The English translation
of the latter, by Whalley (London, 1701), p. 10, runs: "For if the
_Loadstone_ be _Rubbed_ with _Garlick_, the _Iron will not be drawn by
it_."
[89] PAGE 32, LINE 32. Page 32, line 33. _Medici nonnulli._--This is
apparently a reference to the followers of Rhazes and Paracelsus. The
argument of Gilbert as to the inefficacy of powdered loadstones is
reproduced more fully by William Barlowe in his _Magneticall
Aduertisements_ (1616, p. 7), as follows:
"It is the goodnesse of the _Loadstone_ ioyned with a fit forme that will
shew great force. For as a very good forme with base substance can doe but
very litle, so the substance of the _Loadstone_ bee it neuer so excellent,
except it haue some conuenient forme, is not auaileable. For example, an
excellent _loadstone_ of a pound waight and of a good fashion, being vsed
artificially, may take vp foure pounds of Iron; beate it into small pouder,
and it shall bee of no force to take vp one ounce of Iron; yea I am very
well assured that halfe an ounce of a Loadstone of good fashion, and of
like vertue will take vp more then that pound will doe being beaten into
powder. Whence (to adde this by the way) it appeareth manifestly, that it
is a great error of those Physitions and Surgeons, which to remedy
ruptures, doe prescribe vnto their Patients to take the pouder of a
_Loadstone_ inwardly, and the small filing of iron mingled in some plaister
outwardly: supposing that herein the _magneticall_ drawing should doe great
wonders."
[90] PAGE 33, LINE 11. Page 33, line 8. _Nicolaus in emplastrum
divinum._...--Nicolaus Myrepsus is also known as Præpositas. In his _Liber
de compositione medicamentorum_ (Ingoldstat, 1541, 4to) are numerous
recipes containing loadstone: for example, Recipe No. 246, called "esdra
magna," is a medicine given for inflammation of the stomach and for
strangury, compounded of some forty materials including "litho demonis" and
"lapis magnetis." The _emplastrum divinum_ does not, however, appear to
contain loadstone. In the English tractate, _Præpositas his Practise, a
worke ... for the better preservation of the Health of Man. Wherein are ...
approved Medicines, Receiptes and Ointmentes. Translated out of Latin in to
English by_ L. M. (London, 1588, 4to), we read on p. 35, "An Emplaister of
D. N. [Doctor Nicolaus] which the Pothecaries call Divinum." This contains
litharge, bdellium, and "green brasse," but no loadstone.
Luis de Oviedo in his treatise _Methodo de la Coleccion y reposicion de las
Medicinas simples_, edited by Gregorio Gonçalez, Boticario (Madrid, 1622),
gives (p. 502) the following: "Emplasto de la madre. _Recibe_: Nuezes
moscadas, clauos, cinamono, artemisia, piedraimon. De cada uno dos
onças.... Entre otras differencias que ay de piedraiman se hallan dos. Vna
que por la parte que mira al Septentrion, atrae el hierro, por lo quel se
llama magnes ferrugineus. Y otra que atrae la carne, a la qual llaman
magnes creaginus."
An "Emplastrum sticticum" containing amber, mummy, loadstone, {29}
hæmatite, and twenty other ingredients, and declared to be "vulnerum
ulcerumque telo inflictorum sticticum emplastrum præstantissimum," is
described on p. 267 of the _Basilica chimica_ of Oswaldus Crollius
(Frankfurt, 1612).
[91] PAGE 33, LINE 12. Page 33, line 9. _Augustani ... in emplastrum
nigrum_....--Amongst the physicians of the Augsburg school the most
celebrated were Adolphus Occo, Ambrosio Jung, and Gereone Seyler. This
particular reference is to the _Pharmacopoeia Augustana_ ... _a Collegio
Medico recognita_, published at Augsburg, and which ran through many
editions. The recipe for the "_emplastrum nigrum vulgo Stichpflaster_" will
be found on p. 182 of the seventh edition (1621-2). The recipe begins with
oil of roses, colophony, wax, and includes some twenty-two ingredients,
amongst them mummy, dried earthworms, and two ounces _lapidis magnetis
præparati_. The recipe concludes: "Fiat Emplastrum secundùm artem. Perquàm
efficax ad recentia vulnera et puncturas, vndè denominationem habet." The
volume is a handsome folio not unlike Gilbert's own book, and bears at the
end of the prefatory address _ad Lectorem_ identically the same _cul de
lampe_ as is found on p. 44 of _De Magnete_.
The contradictions as to the alleged medicinal virtues of loadstone are
well illustrated by Galen, who in his _De facultatibus_ says that loadstone
is like hæmatite, which is astringent, while in his _De simplici medicina_
he says it is purgative.
[92] PAGE 33, LINE 14. Page 33, line 12. _Paracelsus in fodicationum
emplastrum_.--Paracelsus's recipe for a plaster against stab-wounds is to
be found in _Wundt vund Leibartznei_ ... D. Theoph. Paracelsus (Frankf.,
1555, pp. 63-67).
[93] PAGE 33, LINE 17. Page 33, line 15. _Ferri vis medicinalis_.--This
chapter on the medicinal virtues of iron is a summary of the views held
down to that time. Those curious to pursue the subject should consult
Waring's _Bibliotheca Therapeutica_ (London, 1878). Nor should they miss
the rare black-letter quarto by Dr. Nicholas Monardus, of Seville, _Joyfull
Newes out of the New-found Worlde_, translated by John Frampton (London,
1596), in which are recited the opinions of Galen, Rhazes, Avicenna, and
others, on the medicinal properties of iron. In addition to the views of
the Arabic authors, against whom his arguments are directed, Gilbert
discusses those of Joannes Manardus, Curtius, and Fallopius. The treatise
of Manardus, _Epistolarum medicinalium libri viginti_ (Basil., 1549), is a
_résumé_ of the works of Galen and the Arabic physicians, but gives little
respecting iron. Curtius (Nicolaus) was the author of a book, _Libellus de
medicamentis præparatibus et purgantibus_ (Giessæ Cattorum, 1614). The
works of Fallopius are _De Simplicibus Medicamentis purgentibus tractatus_
(Venet., 1566, 4to), and _Tractatus de Compositione Medicamentorum_
(Venet., 1570, 4to).
[94] PAGE 34, LINE 7. Page 34, line 3. _quorundã Arabum opiniones_.--The
Arabian authorities referred to here or elsewhere by Gilbert are:
_Albategnius_ (otherwise known as Machometes Aractensis), Muhammad Ibn
J[=a]bir, _Al-Batt[=a]n[=i]_.
_Avicenna_ (otherwise Abohali). Abou-'Ali al-'Hoséin ben-'Abd-Allah
Ibn-Sinâ, or, shortly, _Ibn Sîna._
_Averroes._ Muhammad Ibn Ahmed Ibn-Roschd, _Abou Al-Walíd._
_Geber._ Ab[=u] M[=u]s[=a] J[=a]bir Ibn Haiy[=a]n, _Al-Tars[=u]si._
_Hali Abas._ 'Alí Ibn Al-'Abbás, _Al Majúsi_. {30}
_Rhazes_, or _Rasis_. Muhammad Ibn Zakar[=i]y[=a].
_Serapio._ Yuhanná Ibn Sarapion.
_Thebit Ben-Kora_ (otherwise Thabit Ibn Corrah). Ab[=u] Thabit Ibn Kurrah,
_Al Harrani._
[95] PAGE 34, LINE 38.: Page 34, line 40. _electuarium de scoria ferri
descriptum à Raze._--Rhazes or Rasis, whose Arabic name was Muhammad Ibn
Zakar[=i]y[=a], wrote _De Simplicibus, ad Almansorem._ In Chap. 63 of this
work he gives a recipe for a stomachic, which includes fennel, anise,
origanum, black pepper, cinammon, ginger, and iron slag. In the splendid
folio work of Rhazes publisht at Venice in 1542, with the title _Habes
candide lector Contin[~e]tem Rasis_, Libri ultimi, cap. 295, under the
heading _De Ferro,_ are set forth the virtues of iron slag: "Virtus scorie
est sicut virtus scorie [a]eris sed debilior in purgãdo: et erugo ferri
est stiptica: et c[~u] superpositur retinet fluxus menstruor[~u].... Ait
Paulus: aqua in qua extinguitur ferr[~u] calens.... Dico: certificatus sum
experientia [~q] valet contra emorryodas diabetem et fluxum menstruorum."
[96] PAGE 35, LINE 16.: Page 35, line 13. _Paulus._--This is not Fra Paolo
Sarpi, nor Marco Polo, nor Paulus Jovius the historian, nor Paulus
Nicolettus Venetus, but Paulus Aeginæ.
[97] PAGE 35, LINE 29.: Page 35, line 28. _Sed malè Avicenna._--The advice
of Avicenna to administer a draught containing powdered loadstone, reads as
follows in the Giunta edition (Venice, 1608):
Lib. ii., cap. 470, p. 356. "Magnes quid est? Est lapis qui attrahit
ferrum, quum ergo aduritur, fit hæmatites, & virtus ejus est sicut virtus
illius.... Datur in potu [ad bibitionem limaturæ ferri, quum retinetur in
ventre scoria ferri. Ipse enim extrahit] ipsam, & associatur ei apud
exitum. Et dicitur, quando in potu sumuntur ex eo tres anulusat cum
mellicrato, educit solutione humorem grossum malum."
The passage is identical with that in the Venetian edition of 1486, in both
of which the liquid prescribed is mellicratus--mead. Gilbert says that the
iron is to be given in juice of _mercurialis_. Here he only follows
Matthiolus, who, in his _Commentaries on Dioscorides_, says (p. 998 of the
Basil. edition of 1598): "Sed (vt idem Auicenna scribit) proprium hujusce
ferrei pharmaci antidotum, est lapis magnes drachmæ pondere potus, ex
mercurialis, vel betæ succo."
Serapio, in his _De Simplicibus Medicinis_ (Brunfels' edition, Argentorati,
1531), p. 264, refers to Galen's prescription of iron scoriæ, and under the
article _de lapide magnetis_, p. 260, quotes Dioscorides as follows: "Et
uirtus huius lapidis est, ut quãdo dantur in potu duo onolosat ex eo c[~u]
melicrato, laxat humores grossos."
The original passage in Dioscorides, _De Materia Medica,_ ch. 147
(Spengel's edition of 1829) runs: "[Greek: Tou de magnêtou lithou aristos
estin ho ton sidêron eucherôs helkôn, kai tên chroan kuanizôn, puknos te
kai ouk agan barus. Dunamin de echei pachous agôgon didomenos meta
melikratou triôbolou baros; enioi de touton kaiontes anti haimatitou
pipraskousin.]."
In the Frankfurt edition of Dioscorides, translated by Ruellius (1543), the
passage is:
"Magnes lapis optimus est, qui ferrum facile trahit, colore ad coeruleum
uergente, densus, nec admodum gravis. Datur cum aqua mulsa, trium obolorum
pondere, ut crassos humores eliciat. Sunt qui magnetem cremat[=u] pro
hæmatite vendant...."
In the _Scholia_ of Joannes Lonicerus upon Dioscorides _In Dioscoridæ {31}
Anazarbei de re medica libros a Virgilio Marcello versos, Scholia nova,
Ioanne Lonicero autore_ (Marburgi, 1543, p. 77), occurs the following:
"_De recremento ferri._ Cap. XLIX.
"[Greek: Skôria sidêrou]. scoria vel recrementum ferri. Quæ per ignem à
ferro et cupro sordes separantur ac reijciuntur, et ab aliis metallis
[Greek: skôria] uocantur. Omnis scoria, maxime uero ferri exiccat. Acerrimo
aceto macerauit Galenus ferri scoriam, ac deinde excocto, pharmacum efficax
confecit ad purulentas quæ multo tempore uexatæ erant, aures, admirando
spectantium effectu. Ardenti scoria uel recrementum [Greek: helkusma],
inquit Galenus."
See also the _Enarrationes eruditissimæ_ of Amatus Lusitanus (Venet.,
1597), pp. 482 and 507, upon iron and the loadstone.
[98] PAGE 36, LINE 27. Page 36, line 29. _eijcitur_ for _ejicitur_.
[99] PAGE 37, LINE 18. Page 37, line 22. _ut Cardanus
philosophatur._--Cardan's nonsense about the magnet feeding on iron is to
be found in _De Subtilitate_, lib. vii. (Basil., 1611, p. 381).
[100] PAGE 38, LINE 4. Page 38, line 7. _ferramenta ... in usum
navigantium._--Compare Marke Ridley's _A Short Treatise of Magneticall
Bodies and Motions_ (Lond., 1613), p. _a2_ in the _Preface Magneticall_,
where he speaks of the "iron-workes" used in building ships. The
phraseology of Marke Ridley throws much light on the Latin terms used by
Gilbert.
[101] PAGE 38, LINE 36. Page 38, line 42. _vruntur;_ changed in ink to
_vrantur_ in the folio of 1600; but _uruntur_ appears in the editions of
1628 and 1633.
[102] PAGE 39, LINE 12. Page 39, line 12. _virumque;_ altered in ink to
_virunque_ in all copies of the folio edition of 1600.
[103] PAGE 40, LINE 32. Page 40, line 33. _ad tantos labores
exantlandos._--Pumping, as it was in mining before the invention of the
steam engine, may best be realized by examining the woodcuts in the _De re
metallica_ of Georgius Agricola (Basil., Froben, 1556).
[104] PAGE 40, LINE 34. Page 40, line 36. _quingentas orgyas._--Gilbert
probably had in his mind the works of the Rorerbühel, in the district of
Kitzbühl, which in the sixteenth century had reached the depth of 3,107
feet. See Humboldt's _Cosmos_ (Lond., 1860, vol. i., p. 149).
[105] PAGE 43, LINE 34. Page 43, line 33. _glis._--This word, here
translated _grit_, does not appear to be classical Latin; it may mean _ooze
or slime_.
[106] PAGE 45, LINE 25. Page 45, line 26. _Motus igitur ... quinque._ The
five kinds of magnetic motions correspond in fact to the remaining sections
of the book; as follows: _Coitio_, Book II.; _Directio_, Book III.;
_Variatio_, Book IV.; _Declinatio_, Book V.; and _Revolutio_, Book VI.
[107] PAGE 46, LINE 7. Page 46, line 8. _Jofrancus Offusius._--The
reference is to the treatise _De divina astrorum faculitate_ of Johannes
Franciscus Offusius (Paris, 1570).
[108] PAGE 47, LINE 15. Page 47, line 18. _Græci vocant_ [Greek: êlektron],
_quia ad se paleas trahit._ In this discussion of the names given to amber,
Gilbert apparently conceives [Greek: êlektron] to be derived from the verb
[Greek: helkein]; which is manifestly a doubtful etymology. There has been
much discussion amongst philologists as to the derivation of [Greek:
êlektron] or [Greek: êlektron], and its possible connection with the word
[Greek: êlektôr]. This discussion has been somewhat obscured by the
circumstance that the Greek authors unquestionably used [Greek: êlektron]
(and the Latins their word _electrum_) in two different significations,
some of them using these words to mean amber, others to mean a shining {32}
metal, apparently of having qualities between those of gold and silver, and
probably some sort of alloy. Schweigger, _Ueber das Elektron der Alten_
(Greifswald, 1848), has argued that this metal was indeed no other than
platinum: but his argument partakes too much of special pleading. Those who
desire to follow the question of the derivation of [Greek: êlektron] may
consult the following authorities: J. M. Gessner, _De Electro Veterum_
(Commentt. Soc. Reg. Scientt. Goetting., vol. iii., p. 67, 1753); Delaunay,
_Mineralogie der Alten_, Part II., p. 125; Buttmann, _Mythologus_ (Appendix
I., _Ueber das Elektron_), Vol. II., p. 355, in which he adopts Gilbert's
derivation from [Greek: helkein]; Beckmann, _Ursprung und Bedeutung des
Bernsteinnamens Elektron_ (Braunsberg, 1859); Th. Henri Martin, _Du Succin,
de ses noms divers et de ses variétés suivant les anciens_ (Mémoires de
l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, Tome VI., 1^{re} série,
1^{re} partie, 1860); Martinus Scheins, _De Electro Veterum Metallico_
(Inaugural dissertation, Berlin, 1871); F. A. Paley, _Gold Worship in
relation to Sun Worship_ (Contemporary Review, August, 1884). See also
Curtius, _Grundzüge der griechischen Etymologie_, pp. 656-659. The net
result of the disputations of scholars appears to be that [Greek: êlektôr]
(he who shines) is a masculine form to which there corresponds the neuter
form [Greek: êlektron] (that which shines). Stephanus admits the
accentuation used by Gilbert, [Greek: êlektron], to be justified from the
_Timæus_ of Plato; see Note to p. 61.
[109] PAGE 47, LINE 16. Page 47, line 19. [Greek: harpax] dicitur, &
[Greek: chrusophoron].--With respect to the other names given to amber, M.
Th. Henri Martin has written (see previous note) so admirable an account of
them that it is impossible to better it. It is therefore given here entire,
as follows:
"Le succin a reçu chez les anciens des noms très-divers. Sans parler du
nom de [Greek: lunkourion], lyncurium, qui peut-être ne lui appartient
pas, comme nous le montrerons plus loin, il s'est nommé chez les Grecs
le plus souvent [Greek: êlektron] au neutre,^1 mais aussi [Greek:
êlektros] au masculin^2 et même au féminin,^3 [Greek:
chrusêlektros],^4 [Greek: chrusophoros]^5 et peut-être, comme nous
l'avons vu, [Greek: chalkolithanon]; plus tard [Greek: souchion]^6 ou
[Greek: souchinos]^7, et [Greek: êlektrianos lithos];^8 plus tard
encore [Greek: berenikê], [Greek: beronikê] ou [Greek: bernikê];^9 il
s'est nommé [Greek: harpax] chez les Grecs établis en Syrie;^{10} chez
les Latins _succinum_, _electrum_, et deux variétés, _chryselectrum_ et
_sualiternicum_ {33} ou _subalternicum_;^{11} chez les Germains,
_Gless_;^{12} chez les Scythes, _sacrium_;^{13} chez les Egyptiens,
_sacal_;^{14} chez les Arabes, _karabé_^{15} ou _kahraba_;^{16} en
persan, _káruba_.^{17} Ce mot, qui appartient bien à la langue persane,
y signifie _attirant la paille_, et par conséquent exprime l'attraction
électrique, de même que le mot [Greek: harpax] des Grecs de Syrie. En
outre, le nom de _haur roumi_ (_peuplier romain_) était donné par les
Arabes, non-seulement à l'arbre dont ils croyaient que le succin était
la gomme, mais au succin lui-même. _Haur roumi_, transformé en _aurum_
par les traducteurs latins des auteurs arabes, et consondu mal à propos
avec _ambar_ ou _ambrum_, nom arabe latinisé de l'ambre gris, a produit
le nom moderne d'_ambre_, nom commun à l'_ambre jaune_ ou succin, qui
est une résine fossile, et à l'_ambre gris_, concrétion odorante qui se
forme dans les intestines des cachalots. On ne peut dire avec certitude
si le nom de basse grécité [Greek: bernikê] est la source ou le dérivé
de _Bern_, radical du nom allemand du succin (_Bernstein_). Quoi qu'il
en soit, le mot [Greek: bernikê] a produit _vernix_, nom d'une gomme
dans la basse latinité, d'où nous avons fait _vernis_.^{18}"
^1 Voyez Hérodote, III., 115; Platon, _Timée_, p. 80 c; Aristote,
_Météor._, IV., 10; Théophraste, _Hist. des plantes_, IX., 18 (19), §
2; _Des pierres_, § 28 et 29; Diodore de Sic., V., 23; Strabon, IV., 6,
n^o 2, p. 202 (Casaubon); Dioscoride, _Mat. méd._, I., 110; Plutarque,
_Questions de table_, II., 7, § 1; _Questions platoniques_, VII., 1 et
7; Lucien, _Du succin et des cygnes_; le même, _De Pastrologie_, § 19;
S. Clément, _Strom._ II., p. 370 (Paris, 1641, in-fol.); Alexandre
d'Aphr., _Quest. phys. et mor._, II., 23; Olympiodore, _Météor._, I.,
8, fol. 16, t. I., p. 197 (Ideler) et l'abréviateur d'Etienne de
Byzance au mot [Greek: Êlektrides].
^2 Voyez Sophocle, _Antigone_, v. 1038, et dans Eustathe, sur
l'_Iliade_, II., 865; Elien, _Nat. des animaux_, IV. 46; Quintus de
Smyrne, V., 623; Eustathe, sur la _Périégèse_ de Denys, p. 142
(Bernhardy), et sur l'_Odyssée_, IV., 73; et Suidas au mot [Greek:
hualê].
^3 Voyez Alexandre, _Problèmes_, sect. 1, prooem., p. 4 (Ideler);
Eustathe, sur l'_Odyssée_, IV., 73, et Tzetzès, _Chiliade_ VI., 650.
^4 Voyez Psellus, _Des pierres_, p. 36 (Bernard et Maussac).
^5 Voyez Dioscoride, _Mat. méd._, I., 110.
^6 Voyez S. Clément, _Strom._, II., p. 370 (Paris, 1641, in-fol.). Il
paraît distinguer l'un de l'autre [Greek: to souchion] et [Greek: to
êlektron], probablement parce qu'il attribue à tort au métal [Greek:
êlektron] la propriété attractive du succin.
^7 Voyez le faux Zoroastre, dans les _Géoponiques_, XV., 1, § 29.
^8 Voyez le faux Zoroastre, au même endroit.
^9 Voyez Eustathe, sur l'_Odyssée_, IV., 73; Tzetzès, _Chil._ VI., 650;
Nicolas Myrepse, _Antidotes_, ch. 327, et l'Etymol. Gud. au mot [Greek:
êlektron]. Comparez Saumaise, Exert. plin., p. 778.
^{10} Voyez Pline, XXXVII., 2, s. 11, n^o 37.
^{11} Voyez Pline, XXXVII., 2, s. 11-13, et Tacite, _Germanie_, ch. 45.
La forme _sualiternicum_, dans Pline (s. 11, n^o 33), est donnée par le
manuscrit de Bamberg et par M. Sillig (t. V., p. 390), au lieu de la
forme _subalternicum_ des éditions antérieures.
^{12} Voyez Tacite et Pline, _ll. cc._
^{13} Voyez Pline, XXXVII., 2, s. 11, n^o 40, Comp. J. Grimm, _Gesch.
der deutsch. Sprache_, Kap. x., p. 233 (Leipzig, 1848, in-8).
^{14} Pline, _l. c._
^{15} Voyez Saumaise, _De homon. hyles iatricæ_, c. 101, p. 162 (1689,
in-fol.).
^{16} Voyez Sprengel, sur Dioscoride, t. II., pp. 390-391.
^{17} Voyez M. de Sacy, cité par Buttmann, _Mythologus_, t. II., pp.
362-363.
^{18} Voyez Saumaise, _Ex. plin._, p. 778. Il n'est pas probable que le
mot [Greek: bernikê] ou [Greek: berenikê] nom du succin dans la grécité
du moyen âge, soit lié étymologiquement avec le nom propre [Greek:
berenikê], qui vient de l'adjectif macédonien [Greek: berenikos] pour
[Greek: pherenikos].
[110] PAGE 47, LINE 17. Page 47, line 20. _Mauri vero Carabem appellant,
quià solebant in sacrificijs, & deorum cultu ipsum libare. Carab enim
significat offerre Arabicè; ita Carabe, res oblata; aut rapiens paleas, vt
Scaliger ex Abohali citat, ex linguâ Arabicâ, vel Persicâ._--The printed
text, line 18, has "Non rapiens paleas," but in all copies of the folio of
1600, the "Non" has been altered in ink into "aut," possibly by Gilbert's
own hand. Nevertheless the editions of 1628 and 1633 both read "Non." There
appears to be no doubt that the origin of the word _Carabe_, or _Karabe_,
as assigned by Scaliger, is substantially correct. As shown in the
preceding note, Martin adopted this view. If any doubt should remain it
will be removed by the following notes which are due to Mr. A. Houtum
Schindler (member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers), of Terahan.
Reference is made to the magnetic and electric properties of stones in
three early Persian lapidaries. There are three stones only mentioned,
amber, loadstone, and garnet. The electric property of the diamond is not
mentioned. The following extracts are from the _Tansûk nâmah_, by Nasîr ed
dîn Tûsi, A.D. 1260. The two other treatises give the first extracts in the
same words.
"_Kâhrubâ_, also _Kahrabâ_ [Amber],
"Is yellow and transparent, and has its name from the property, which it
possesses, of attracting small, dry pieces of straw or grass, after it has
been rubbed with cloth and become warm. [Note. In Persian, Kâh = straw;
rubâ = the robber, hence Kâhrubâ = the straw-robber.] Some consider it a
mineral, and say that it is found in the Mediterranean and Caspian seas,
floating on the surface, but this is not correct. The truth is that Kâhrubâ
{34} is the gum of a tree, called jôz i rûmî [_i.e._, roman nut; walnut?],
and that most of it is brought from Rûm [here the Eastern Rome] and from
the confines of Sclavonia and Russia. On account of its bright colour and
transparency it is made into beads, rings, belt-buckles, &c. ... &c.
* * * * *
"The properties of attraction and repulsion are possessed by other
substances than loadstone, for instance, by amber and bîjâdah,^1 which
attract straws, feathers, etc., and of many other bodies, it can be said
that they possess the power of attraction. There is also a stone which
attracts gold; it has a pure yellow colour. There is also a stone which
attracts silver from distances of three or two yards. There are also the
stone which attracts tin, very hard, and smelling like asafoetida, the
stone attracting hair, the stone attracting meat, etc., but, latterly, no
one has seen these stones: no proof, however, that they do not exist."
Avicenna (Ibn Sinâ) gives the following under the heading of _Karabe_ (see
_Canona Medicinæ_, Giunta edition, Venet., 1608, lib. ii., cap. 371, p.
336):
"Karabe quid est? Gumma sicut sandaraca, tendens ad citrinitatem, &
albedinem, & peruietatem, & quandoque declinat ad rubedinem, quæ attrahit
paleas, & [fracturas] plantarum ad se, & propter hoc nominatur Karabe,
scilicet rapiens paleas, persicè.... Karabe confert tremori cordis, quum
bibitur ex eo medietas aurei cum aqua frigida, & prohibet sputum sanguinis
valde.... Retinet vomitum, & prohibet materias malas a stomacho, & cum
mastiche confortat stomachum.... Retinet fluxum sanguinis ex matrice, &
ano, & fluxum ventris, & confert tenasmoni."
Scaliger in _De Subtilitate_, _Exercitatio_ ciii., § 12, the passage
referred to by Gilbert says: "Succinum apud Arabas uocatur, Carabe: quod
princeps Aboali, rapiens paleas, interpretatur" (p. 163 _bis_, editio
Lutetiæ, 1557).