of the former and one of the latter.* To obliterate a drawing or piece of writing, it was rubbed over with crumbs of bread. A pencil of this kind was called stile. Petrarch has immortalised a painter, named Simone Memmi, by a couple of sonnets, out of gratitude for a picture of his beloved Laura. In these he says that the artist * Il Riposo di Raffaello Borghini. In Fiorenzo 1584, 8vo. p. 139: Ancora si puo disegnare con lo stile del piombo, che si fa due parti piombo, e una di stagno benissimo battuto col martello, e quando si volesse levare qualche segno non ben fatto, freghiuisi sopra con un poco di midolla di pane Si etiandio disegnar con matita puo nera, levando i segni quando occorre rifargli con la midolla del pane; ma se alcuno volesse disegnare con matita rossa, bisogna habbia avertenza non far prima le linee col piombino; perche vien poi il disegno macchiato; ma bisogna farle con i stile d'argento, e disegnar con la matita rossa con diligenza, perche non si può con la midolla del pane tor via, come si fa della nera. Artists therefore used sometimes also silver pencils. The following is extracted from Philip Baldinucci's Vocabulario Toscano dell'arte del disegno, in Firenze 1681, 4to. p. 158. Stile. Una verghetta sottile, che si fa di due terzi di piombo en un terzo di stagno, e serve par tirar le prime linee a chi vuol disegnar con penna; fannosene anche con argento ; et il segno che si fa con tale strumento, con midolla di pane facilmente si cancella, par rifar poi altri segni, senza che il foglio rimango imbrattato, calcando piu o meno, o piu o meno tignendo il carta. Questa voce è proprissima di tale strumento, e usata ne' piu antichi tempi, leggendosi nella 6 Giorn. Nou. 5 di Gio. Bocc. là dove parla di Giotto le seguenti parole: Ebbe un' ingegno di tanta excellenza, che niuna cosa della natura fu, che egli con lo stile, e con la penna, e col pennello, non dipignesse si simile a quella, che non simile, anzi piu tosto dessa paresse. + These sonnets are the 57th and 58th. I have in my possession a scarce edition, in Venetia appresso Nic. Misserini 1624, in small made the drawing with a stile in carte. The author here evidently alludes to a drawing-pencil, and not to a graver, as some have supposed. Boccacio, a scholar of Petrarch, celebrates an artist who was equally expert at drawing with the stile, the pen, and the pencil. Michael Angelo also, who died in 1564, says in a sonnet on Vasari, quoted by Fiorillo, Se con lo stile e co' colori avete. Such pencils were long used also in Germany; and formerly they were found at the most common writing-desks. This The use of red and black chalk seems to be more modern. The former is called by the Italians matita rossa, and the latter matita nera. name is derived from hæmatites. Vasari celebrates Baccio Bondinelli, who died in the middle of the sixteenth century, because he could handle equally well lo stile, e la penna, e la matita rossa e nėra.* Baldinucci says, that the best red chalk comes from Germany; good black chalk from duodecimo or sixteens, where the sonnets stand p. 87. Let the reader compare only the following lines, Quando giunse a Simon l'alto concetto Che a mio nome gli pose in man lo stile, with the expressions in the first sonnet, Ivi la vide e la ritrasse in carte. Of this Simon and his drawings an account may be found in Fiorillo Geschichte der zeichnenden Künste, Göttingen, 1798, 8vo. i. p. 269. * Vite de' Pittori. In Roma, 1759, 4to. ii. p. 577. France; but the very best from Spain, whence that of the first quality is obtained at present.* I can, however, point out no mention of our plumbago in the works of the old Italian artists. Armenini, who wrote at the end of the sixteenth century, relates how pupils were taught to draw a hundred years before his time. † He says, that they made the first sketches with piombo over cannella col lapis nero, and afterwards filled them up with a pen. But when his whole description is read, there can remain no doubt that the substance here meant is black chalk. Baldinucci, who did not write till 1681, has introduced particularly into his dictionary matita rossa, nera, and also lapis piombino; and says that the last mentioned is an artificial production, which gives a leaden colour, and is employed for drawing. It is evident, therefore, that the author here alludes to plumbago, which was then very common. But when Bottari says that artists first began to use red and black chalk in the time of Vasari, whereas lapis piombino only was employed before that period, he has named plumbago, commonly used in his time, instead of the metallic pencil which * Vocabulario, p. 92. + De veri precetti della pittura, di M. Gio. Battista Armenini. In Ravenna, 1587, 4to. p. 53. In his observations on the before-mentioned work of Vasari, Vite de' Pittori, iii. p. 310: Da quel che dice Vasari, si raccoglie, que era cominciato l'uso della matita rossa e nera, che prima non si sava, se non il lapis piombino was called stile. If I am not mistaken, the Italians have no proper appellation for black lead, but call it sometimes matita and sometimes piombino. SAL AMMONIAC. Ir is not very probable that Dioscorides, Pliny, and others who lived nearly about the same time, were acquainted with sal ammoniac, or mentioned it in their works; for no part of mineralogy was then so defective as that which is the most important, and which treats of salts. The art of lixiviating earths and causing saline solutions to crystallize was then so little known, that, instead of green vitriol, vitriolic minerals, however impure, were employed in making ink, dye-liquors, and other things. Places for boiling vitriol were not then established; and therefore Pliny beheld with wonder* blue vitriol, which in his time was made only in Spain, as a thing singular in its kind, or which had not its like. On this account those salts only were known which occur in a native state, or which crystallize as it were of themselves, without any artificial preparation, as is the case with bay salt. But that neutral salt, from the muriatic acid and volatile lixivious salt, occurs *See vol. i. p. 289. I do very seldom in a native state, and almost exclusively among the productions of volcanoes. not, however, suppose that this volcanic sal ammoniac was the first known, but that it was first considered to be sal ammoniac after that salt had been long obtained by another method, and long used. But even if it should be believed that our sal ammoniac was known to the ancients, how are we to discover it with certainty in their writings? This salt has little or nothing by which these writers could characterize it. Neither its external form nor taste is so striking that it could be described by them with sufficient precision. The use of it also could not, at that time, be so important and necessary, as to enable us to determine whether they were acquainted with it; whereas, on the other hand, vitriol and alum can easily be distinguished among the materials for dyeing. Nay, if this salt had been then made, as it is made at present in Egypt, and if any allusion to it were found, one might readily conjecture that sal ammoniac were really meant. But even though it must be admitted that traces of sublimation being employed occur in the writings of Dioscorides and others, who lived nearly at the same period, we are not authorised to suppose that the knowledge of it was sufficient for the preparation of this salt. Besides, there are two properties with which the ancients might have accidentally become ac |