210 



DYEING. 



Whether 



with the 

 properties 



of alum as 

 * mordant. 



Probably 

 learned the 

 use of it 

 from the 

 KgyptUnv 



feeling, and more influenced by reason, set a due value 

 upon the tine arts, without underrating those which are 

 subservient to the more common concerns of life. A 

 philoaopher of the present times does not affect the aus- 

 tere and reserved habits of the sages of antiquity : he 

 mixes freely in society, and does not disdain to derive 

 information from whatever nature or an may offer to his 

 observation. The instruction he has received from the 

 artist has been amply repaid, by the light which science 

 has shed upon the arts, and the explanations which it has 

 afforded of their various processes. 



17. Next to the Tynan purple, the Romans valued 

 must highly the colour obtained from the kermes, or 

 coccus ilicit. Pliny mentions that this dye was some- 

 times employed with the colour uf murex and buccinum, 

 (the shell-fish which gave the Tynan purple) in pro- 

 ducing a sort of purplish crimson, called by the Romans 

 tiysgimts. He states, that this substance was brought 

 from Galatia, or from the neighbourhood of Emcrita in 

 Portugal, and that the latter was reckoned most valuable. 

 We learn also from Pliny, that the kermes, like the Ty- 

 riun dye, was at last appropriated for dyeing the impe- 

 rial robes, though it must have yielded a colour greatly 

 inferior to that which is obtained from it at present, as 

 he insinuates that it was not durable. This last circum- 

 stance would lead us to suspect, that at that time the 

 ancients were unacquainted with the use of alum as a 

 mordant, though such an opinion is rather discounte- 

 nanced by other facts stated by Pliny. In his 35th book, 

 chap. xv. De Svlpkxre, Alttnuiie, et gencrihus eontm, $c. 

 he describes several species of alum ; that of these the 

 island of Cyprus afforded two, one white, and the other 

 black ; and that though their colours differed but little, 

 their uses were extremely different. The white alum, 

 he adds, is principally used for dyeing wool with clear 

 and bright colours; the black, for dyeing brown and 

 dark colours. He afterwards notices five different kinds, 

 and concludes with observing, that alt the different kinds 

 of alum were possessed of an astringent property. Beck- 

 mann lias endeavoured to prove that the alum of the 

 ancients was totally different from the triple compound 

 to which the moderns apply the term alum, and consist- 

 ed in a combination of sulphuric acid, with either iron 

 or copper, or perhaps zinc, formerly known by the names 

 of green, blue, and white vitriols. In support of his 

 opinion, he mentions that the Greek and Roman writers 

 mention only native alum, a salt of very rare occur- 

 rence ; while no account is given of any Work for its 

 artificial preparation, except one in Spain, noticed by 

 Pliny, which was intended to crystallize the sulphates of 

 copper or iron. But the passage already referred to, 

 renders it extremely probable that the common sulphate 

 of alumine was included among the substances to which 

 lie gave the appellation of alumea : though it is no less 

 certain, that the sulphates of iron and copper were class- 

 ed along with it, as he expressly states that two of them 

 produced a black colour, with galls, and the peels of the 

 pomegranate. 



1 7. We have already stated, that before the time of 

 Pliny, the Egyptians practised a kind of calico-printing, 

 which they borrowed from Hindostan ; and it may be 

 presumed, that crystallized alum, which is even now oc- 

 casionally imported to this country from India, and has 

 been used there in the processes of dyeing during muny 

 centuries, would have been carried thence with other 

 dyeing drugs to Egypt. Whether the Egyptians, after 

 btaining alum from India, discovered at some future 



period the method of manufacturing it at home, r af- Hi*aty. ^ 

 terwards derived their supply of tins article from the in- '*^V*** 

 habitants of some of the countries bordering on India, 

 who might have acquired the knowledge of preparing jt 

 from the Hindoos, would be very difficult to determine ; 

 but it is certain that the Egyptian alum was long highly 

 celebrate.! ; and Pliny expressly mentions that it was 

 held in higher estimation than any other. If the Romans 

 actually employed nlum in dyeing with the kermes, they 

 probably learned the use of it from the Egyptians. 



18. Resides the Tyrian purple, and the various shades Colouring 

 of ret! from the kermes, the Romans were acquainted nutters cm- 

 with several other colours. It was customary among J*JJJ ^ 

 them, from the earliest times, for newly married women a ^ na ~ 



to wear a yellow veil, a colour which was confined en- 

 tirely to matrons ; and those who were employed in the 

 games of the circus were distributed into divisions, each 

 of which was dressed in an appropriate colour. The co- 

 lours mentioned are color prasxinus, green ; rufaltu, 

 orange; venetus, grey, or perhaps a light blue; and white. 

 Some idea may be formed of the qualities of these co- 

 lours, hv enumerating the substances with which they 

 were procured. It is difficult to give a complete account 

 of them ; but the following seem to liave been the most 

 important : madder, woad, the roots of anchusa tinctoria, 

 or alkanct ; the genista tinctoria, or dyer's broom ; gall- 

 nuts, pomegranate peels, alder bark, the rinds of wal- 

 nuts, the bark of the walnut tree, and the pods of the 

 Egyptian acacia. No account, however, has been trans- 

 mitted to us, either by Greek or Roman writers, respect- 

 ing the methods in which these substances were employ- 

 ed, or of the mordants that were used along with them 

 to give fixity to their colouring principles. 



1 9. The ancients were ignorant of the use of soap, a The an- 

 substance which gives the moderns a decided superiority " " s ':-- 

 over them in preparing the stuff for the reception of the JJ| 

 dye. In order to remove the grease from the wool, and ^ap. 

 wash linen, they employed a plant called by Pliny rndi- 



cii/ti, and by the Greeks irr^vSitt, supposed to be our sa- 

 ponaria, or soap-wort. Pliny notices another plant which 

 was used for the same purpose. Homer represents the 

 Princess Nausica and her attendants washing their linen 

 clothes in the ditches, by trampling on them with their 

 feet. 



20. Whatever knowledge of dyeing the ancients pos- Loss of tlie 

 sessed, appears to have been lost about the fifth century, '"''" 



a period when almost all the arts were forgotten, and P" 1 ^" 8 "* 

 - .... . . . ' &*B 



scarce any traces of civilization remained in the western ' 



empire. A faint knowledge of the arts WAS, indeed, re- 

 tained in Italy, and kept alive by occasional intercourse 

 with the East, in consequence of the crusades ; and also 

 by the importation of various articles of luxury and re- 

 finement, which was made at that time by the Vene- 

 tians from the same quarter. This importation continu- 

 ally afforded new materials for industry, and new objects 

 for imitation, and gradually led to the revival of the 

 arts in Italy. The knowledge of the methods of dye- 

 ing, as practised by the Greeks and Romans, was in 

 si line measure restored by the acquisition of chemical 

 science, which now began to shed a feeble light over 

 the objects of human industry, and attained a state of 

 improvement probably not inferior to that in which it 

 existed in ancient times. 



21. From Italy, the knowledge of dyeing gradually Revival of 

 spread itself through the other states of Europe. Ar- <Jy< 

 chil is said to have lx?en discovered at Florence about 



the year 1300, by a merchant of that city, who hap. 



