190 PLTNT*S N-ATUEAL HISTORY. [Book XXXIT. 



the ores, in fact, will produce bar or malleable copper when 

 sufficiently melted and purified by heat. Among the other 

 kinds of copper, the palm of excellence is awarded to that of 

 Campania,''^ which is the most esteemed for vessels and utensils. 

 This last is prepared several ways. At Capua it is melted 

 upon fires made with wood, and not coals, after which it 

 is sprinkled with cold water and cleansed through a sieve 

 made of oak. After being thus smelted a number of times, 

 Spanish silver-lead is added to it, in the proportion of ten 

 pounds of lead to one hundred pounds of copper ; a method 

 by which it is rendered pliable, and made to assume that agree- 

 able colour which is imparted to other kinds of copper by the 

 application of oil and the action of the sun. Many parts, 

 however, of Italy, and the provinces, produce a similar kind 

 of metal ; but there they add only eight pounds of lead, and, 

 in consequence of the scarcity of wood, melt it several times 

 over upon coals. It is in Gaul more particularly, where the 

 ore is melted between red-hot stones, that the difference is to 

 be seen that is produced by these variations in the method of 

 smelting. Indeed, this last method scorches the metal, and 

 renders it black and friable. Besides, they only melt it twice ; 

 whereas, the oftener this operation is repeated, the better in 

 quality it becomes. 



(9.) It is also as well to remark that all copper fuses best 

 when the weather is intensely cold. The proper combination 

 for making statues and tablets is. as follows: the ore is first 

 melted ; after which there is added to the molten metal one 

 third part of second-hand" copper, or in other words, copper 

 that has been in use and bought up for the purpose. For it 

 is a peculiarity of this metal that when it has been some time 

 in use, and has been subject to long-continued friction, it be- 

 comes seasoned, and subdued, as it were, to a high polish. 

 Twelve pounds and a half of silver-lead are then added to 

 every hundred pounds of the fused metal. There is also a 

 combination of copper, of a most delicate nature, *' mould- 

 copper,""* as it is called ; there being added to the metal one 



"'^ In the former Editions the whole of the next ten lines, from this word 

 down to "sun" is omitted. It is evident that it has been left out by ac- 

 cident, in consequence of the recurrence of the word " Campano." The 

 liiatus has been supplied from the Bamberg MS., and the reading is sup- 

 ported by the text of Isidorus, Orig. B. xvi. c. 20, s. 9. 



" " CoUectanei." '''* " Formalis." 



