122 Beginnings of Porcelain 



with reference to the theory that the murrines might have been porce- 

 lain of Chinese origin. This view predominated in Europe for three 

 centuries, till it yielded to still more fantastic ideas in modern times. 

 Jerome Cardan (Hieronymus Cardanus), the Italian mathematician 

 (1501-76), is to be regarded as the father of the porcelain theory. 

 In his work "De subtilitate rerum" (Nurnberg, 1550, p. 119), he 

 made the assertion, "Sunt autem myrrhina ea, quae hodie vocantur 

 Porcellanea," and supported it by the explanation that they had 

 come to western Asia from China, the country of the Seres, and that 

 whatever does not fit in with them in the description of Pliny became 

 subsequently altered in the manufacture of these vessels. Julius 

 Caesar Scaliger (1484-1558) concurred with him in this opinion, and 

 only reproached his predecessor for having advanced his statement in 

 too timid a fashion. His son, the great scholar Joseph Justus Scaliger 

 ( 1 540-1 609), inherited and accepted his father's verdict. Whatever 

 we may think of the view of the two Scaliger, it remains interesting, 

 as it was at their time that porcelain gradually became known in 

 Europe; and this fact may certainly have reacted on the shaping of 

 their opinion. 



In the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century, the 

 old opinion that by "the murrines" should be understood porcelain, was 

 revived by P. J. Mariette 1 and by E. H. Roloff, 2 the latter a physi- 

 cian, whose work is accompanied by notes and additions at the hands 

 of Ph. Buttmann. The theory of Cardanus and Scaliger was here 

 defended afresh and with circumstantial detail, and seemingly with 

 such success that it maintained its place for some twenty-five years, 

 until F. Thiersch 3 brought about the victory of the mineralogical 

 theory, and replaced the murrines of porcelain by murrines of fluor-spar. 

 RolofT and Buttmann based their argumentation pre-eminently on 

 the famous passage of Propertius in which are mentioned "murrine 

 cups baked in the kilns of the Parthians" (murreaque in Parthis pocula 

 cocta focis), that without any doubt refer to ceramic productions. 

 They utterly failed, however, to furnish any exact and logical evidence 

 for their proposed identification of murrines with porcelain, which 

 was merely a preconceived idea, or nothing more than their personal 

 impression in the matter. They argued that this porcelain must 

 have come from the land of the Seres, China, where it is exceedingly 



1 Traits des pierres gravies, Vol. I, p. 219 (Paris, 1750). 



2 Wolf's and Buttmann's Museum der Alterthumswissenschaft, Vol. II, pp. 519-572, 

 1810. 



8 Uber die Vasa murrina der Alten (Abhandlungen der bayerischen Akademie, 

 1835, pp. 443-509)- 



